Poetry and Bananas

I am a poet.  There, I said it.  Now you can all point and laugh, or whatever it is that we do to self professed poets these days.

That being said; I have an opinion about how poetry should look to me.  I can't say if it's right or not.  I just know that there is a certain way that I like to write, that actually feels like poetry to me.

I can defend this point of view with this brief explanation:  What does it mean when someone stands back from something, and exclaims "That is poetry!" ?

In my experience, they are referring to something that is beautiful to them, something that flows easily, something that seems natural, and maybe even lasting in nature.  

I've heard that exclamation in reference to sports.  When a difficult run or catch, or unusual move is pulled off with an effortless kind of grace by the athlete.  It looks like poetry.  Because it is what it is.  

I've heard that in reference to architecture, paintings, sculpture, natural landscapes, and the occasional nude man or woman.  In all cases, referred to as 'poetry', due to how it looks, and more importantly, how it makes the observer feel inside.

That's essentially what poetry is to me:  A group of words, no matter how you put them together, that flow naturally, and make you feel their beauty on the inside of your soul.

On achieving the goal of producing poetry, as I've defined it; I will be charitable, and say that I succeed about 10% of the time.  

The other 90% of time made up of near misses, never should've attempted's , and what was I thinking's.  

The 10% of the time that I succeed at putting words together in a pleasing way, at least to me (remember, this is all subjective!); it tends to flow out of my fingers effortlessly.  Whether it is from a well thought out beginning, middle and end; or from the seed of one word or phrase.  

It is beautiful.  Just like the tuned athlete in motion, it flows without effort for both writer and reader.  With natural starts, stops, and pauses; unforced rhymes and ideas.

To be honest, I was going to take this opportunity to complain about something that myself and a friend have dubbed as "Banana Poetry".  Called so, because it drives me bananas.  

It is the practice of some poets, to dice up their words.  Whether to force a rhyme from the middle of a sentence; or to create unnaturally paused two to three word lines.  

I will give an example using the first five lines of Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken":

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

I suppose a scholarly person could describe that as "An example of a-b-a-a-b poetry stanza, blah blah blah"

Whatever.  It's pretty, and a great start, to a great poem, that people can generally look at, and call it "Poetry".  

Ok, now what if I break it up like this?

Two roads

Diverged

In a yellow wood

And sorry 

I could not

Travel both

And be one

Traveler

Long I stood

And looked 

Down one as far

As I could

To where it bent

In the undergrowth

Does that flow as nicely?  Does that make as much sense?  

Ok, I know art is subjective.  And poetry, being art, is no exception.  But the Frost structured original, flows much nicer to me, and is poetry so much more, than the one I broke up for the example.

Same words, same poet; but phrased very differently.

You see, to me, a poem has natural pauses.  Just like punctuation, but you don't even need punctuation in the damned thing, because of how you laid it out.  And how the poet lays it out, with all it's implied pauses and stops, is how it is to be read in the readers head.  And if you didn't mean for the reader to stop at a certain word at the end of a line for a breath; then you've kind of failed at your job.  Because that is what readers do at the end of a line in a poem; they stop to take a breath, so to speak.  

And then another one that drives me bananas.  The ones that cut and hack, just to gain a rhyme.

Just imagine lines of a poem, that are cut off midstride, just to attain that magical a-b-a-b rhyme rhythm.  Which is very overrated.  Yet pretty sweet when you come by it naturally.  

Well, anyways, that is just some commentary by me.  About what poetry is to me, as of this date: 10-5-13.  

I'm sure next year, I will feel differently.  

Oh, and incidentally, when I bitch about a style that drives me bananas:  It is because I've probably tried it, many times; and I hated it, couldn't make it work.  So that's why I don't like it.  As it doesn't feel like poetry to me.

That's not to say it doesn't feel like poetry to YOU.  Or someone else.  So save your hate.  I know it's subjective, I've said so three or four times now.  

When something is poetry, you KNOW it.  From balls to brain.  Nobody has to tell you.  

Cheers, to poetry, in all it's myriad guises.