Not A Poem

[Lightning Rod]

I get sick of poets who write about poetry
and they think that just because they break
it up into lines, that makes whatever prosaic
drivel about their 'feelings' they care to meander
about and call it poetry, especially when it's about
being a fucking poet and what a hard job it is
I've done it myself. I'm no angel, but it bores me.

if I break it into lines, it's called poetry
if I get drunk enough, it's called poetry
if I feel sorry enough for myself, guess what
I can call it poetry and nobody will blow the whistle.

there are rants and there are poems
never the twain shall meet
you can usually recognize poems by these signs:
rhythm
rhyme
imagery
symmetry
repetition
meaning
word music

This isn't a poem.

[westcoast]

~westcoast

[Lightning Rod]

westie, don't wink at me this time of night
it could get us both in trouble

[mtmynd]

((no shit))

[mnaz]

Especially that, um, "drunk enough" part.
Never much real symmetry there.
Taught me a lesson, probably.
Prosaic broken drivel has its place.
Or not.

Buck up ye scribes!

[gypsyjoker]

<center> words in quotations are Neal Cassady's from
here


<center>"All the forms are dead"

"all forms are known"

"life goes where the new forms are"

the future is asymetrical

change the only constant

in the future will have been

"enjoy it"
</center>



</center>
Clay I guess poetry is like sausage or politics, I will never understand how it is made. I am pretty sure it is born of the spirit and speaks to the spirit. I just enjoy your poetry, more than enjoy, it moves me sometimes.
I will never understand it. As I said the other night on the phone. I am tune deaf. Poetry is born from the spirit of music. Lucky I can still enjoy both in my crippled way. But I realize now that the discussions about what poetry is or is not are necessary for poets. I suppose I am fortunate that I do not need to know. But I should probably take a poetry appreciation class cause I miss so much. Or I could get a Vogon poetry appreciation chair. Now I am just being silly.



Doreen:
not to gush
but that was wild
even I could hear it
oh yes

[bennie2]

i've written about
not being able
to write

when i write a rant
i think
to read
it's clear that it's
a rant
i think

i've always thought i'm better at the rant-write than the poetry write. i think i'm a poet in the wider sense of the word "poet" and i write the occassional great line. i could go into the t-shirt and car bumper slogan business.

my best poetic attribute re. writing is my innate sense of rhythm. maybe that's just the celtic in me. the tribal element. pale blue of skin and rythmic as a throbbing heart. i'm not a very good dancer though. as you can see...

[Doreen Peri]

Doreen:
not to gush
but that was wild
even I could hear it
oh yes

Sorry. That was not a poem.



......

bennie... is that you? heh.. that's very cool

[bennie2]

yes. me four or five years ago at a music festival (t in the park). we slept in a very small car for three days. that's a littl .gif of my "dance"

[westcoast]

not only do i not know what is poetry, most of the time i have no idea what most of you are talking about. lol....

~westie

[Lightning Rod]

you guys never cease to trip me out

see, I'm breaking this into lines

so I don't have to punctuate etc

each line is a breath

and each of you are a breath

jack, bennie, mark, cec

you guys have gotten my heart right

more times than I can count

but I wouldn't have a friend

who was afraid to slap me upside the head

[emel.scott]

the twain shall meet

[judih]

not a poem
not a poem
not a poem

(but is it a haiku?)
hot evening
wasp lingers in shade
3 stings tonight

inserting a little reality here. man on couch in pain.

[gypsyjoker]

sometimes I wonder if zen is a blood sport, people cutting their thumbs off getting slapped up side the head, and so on and so forth.



I want to be the grandma moses of poetry.

beats me
haiku
not a poem