More Thoughts On Poetry

Here's another reason, a thought, as to why "popular poetry" can, and perhaps should, seem more appealing than the scholarly "higher" variants.

It makes sense that metre, rhythm, phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, general symbolism and many other literary ploys should infest the every syllable of the "poetry" that we conceive, melodify, and scribble onto our medium before cutting, refining and rearranging until its audiovisual powers of intellectual invocation meet or transcend our original inspiration.

On that note, I should also add that true beautiful poetry as I see it is like a painting; it is up to the artist and the beholder whether or not to hold any bias or preference for subjective beauty as presented either overtly, covertly, or some blend of the two. True masterful poetry pays no homage to complexity, and most assuredly not to specificity. Those two elements do not generally complement, amplify, or enrich poetry in any general sense beyond the niche. True inspirational, evocative poetry is influential and timeless.

Whether yet budding small and meek as I, or bloomed, every writer springs forth in sudden bursts. So too should poetry rush out from its master's keep, from shimmering sunlight beaming down mosaics through the leaves and onto the restful face, the fleeting, sandy waves of opalescent blue on a blinding summer day, the unlikely marriage of street lamps and fall leaves under the bewitching beams of the twilight moon, or the romantic freezing of time as a violet night gently ices the world a cold alabaster.

 

~Yukigami

Popular Poetry

I suppose the kind of poetry I like is what we refer to as "popular poetry."
But this form of the art should not be taken as something lacking in intellectual depth. In fact, A lot of the poetry studied in university is too vague-for-the-sake-of-vague. My prof even admitted to this. It is good to make the reader think, but it can be frustrating. Furthermore, or more importantly, I don't like it when all kinds of references to very specific places in the world or other very niche bits of knowledge become necessary requirements for the understanding of a poem, If vagueness is focused on at all in the making of a poem, the writer may lose sight of its original intentions and inner story, if even to a small degree. Beautiful-but-simple words and descriptors can be missed out on, and what's more, it may become all too obvious that the writer has written the poem for the purpose of its academic style and acceptance. Give me a break - just write what flows in through your heart and our of your pen!

Popular poetry can easily paint a vibrant and quickly-fabricated image with simple language simply saturated with symbolism, abstraction, analogy and metaphor, word play, and inclusive references. In this form, there is still plenty of depth and covertness with which to challenge the reader's raw imaginative ability and literary eye.

~Yukigami