SHEsaysWITHaSMILE.blogspot.com

A Case for Poetry. -to (alexandra petri!) from (me!) sandra, tvgp

i'm about to be serious here.  i can be entertaining.. and im responding directly to your highly entertaining article, "is poetry dead?"    -but i am quite serious when i say

"God determines the life or death of poetry; not people."

what happens. -what seems to happen, is that people get very confused in capitalist societies..

confused by monetary systems; confused by supply and demand; confused by popularity; social media; public opinion..

and they tend to think that one dictates the life or death of the other.

it does not.

it might in fact dictate whether poetry is published or not; how well it is or is not distributed and shared; whether or not it is publicly
glorified or mocked..

but poets..   people who are born with an instinct to write poetry

-it is a certain   -small-   /relatively speaking,

percentage of the human population which does not answer to and is not dictated by, capitalism; supply and demand; popularity, monetization, celebrity endorsement, praise or criticism.. fads or trends, Etc.

-because i live inside all of these man-made systems mentioned  above..  I too, at one, and for a long time

Believed

it was my responsibility somehow to popularize the genre

and so I smiled Inside, as a panelist who helped select my city's two current teen poet laureates

as I listened to candidate after candidate explain how they intended to make poetry ...  more accessible.. more popular.. 

I may have even made the same claim during my Interviews to become the current poet laureate..

sometimes it is heartfelt; sometimes you just know what they need and want to hear..

in any case..  Poetry is far from dead; but any desire I once had  to popularize it certainly is.

-sour grapes?   I would argue not.

I would rather lean in the direction of recognizing that  -as we are only a small percentage of the human population..

us poets,

it makes us even more valuable!  More blessed! More lucky..

novelists..  Dime a dozen, as the saying goes..
fiction writers, journalists, academia, trade...

reach out your hand at any writers conference and touch the shoulder of the person next to you..

But poets!    -a select and small breed if you will..

Perhaps not even attending such conferences..

Because THE INSTINCT to write poetry..

it does not require a conference,
A permission slip,
applause, validation..

it only requires the human host to listen and honor..

and I think it is worth repeating here

the birth of a poem happened first.  that is, someone spoke and ,wrote in a certain way, distinct from other forms,  AND THEN! It got a label, a name:

Poem. poetry. Poet.

further..  Patterns happened FIRST!  and then were labeled and categorized; not the other way around.

it is worth contemplating the ORIGINS of poetry. 

today..we give the structure/form first,  -and then ask students to squeeze their words inside a given format..

that is why I make a distinction between what I call

Organic poetry vs. Imposed.

organic..  = No one asked you to write one, it is not for a class, or grade, it may or may not ever be shared publicly..   But it has been written by someone who honored the Instinct; the rare and beautiful Instinct.

Imposed of course =  you've been asked..  By a teacher, a friend,  it is a responsibility, an obligation..  And you might enjoy the responsibility, the obligation, the results..  But imposed poetry does not exist without an external request of some sort..

organic poetry exists no matter what.  answers to an internal instinct..   

You   -random reader-  may never have exposure to it..

I'm quite convinced the worlds greatest poems are not available on the Internet, or at your local bookstore..

and yet,  -I know they exist.   and in our capitalist society we make quite a big deal of whether things are popular and monetizable.. 

and we equate value with..

But oh!  The rare, wonderful, exquisite sensation of feeling a poem coming on...    -when no one asked!!

the rare, wonderful and exquisite sensation of honoring that feeling..

and speaking..

Or writing the words down...   organizing and playing with.. or, oh! when they come out perfect  and require no play or editing at all!

Well,

only a small percentage of humans who are first gifted with the  instinct and then who dare to honor it..

only they get to know and experience this...  

this...      this...!

and same, by the way, for people who never write but only read and find themselves RESPONDING to poetry.

grab 12 people and show them all the same poem.

if you RESPOND...  that too! is a rare, wonderful, exquisite internal sensation; a gift.

a gift in and of itself which also does not require prior permission or applause or validation; ...you experience that independent of...

So,

contemplate the origins of poetry. look at the history. Check the graphs and stats..   while it fluctuates some, trending up and down..

there has always been
And will always be

poets and poetry.  Has no one else already noticed how God does not conform humans to capitalism?   he is so stubborn isn't he.

I mean, do you think if starting today, write now,  -there was never a poem published again,

that nor would there be a poet born?   God does not play by those rules..

  It is my belief, that poets have always been and will always be,

a small percentage of the human population.

and when we look at the shelves in any given library

and there are hundreds of rows of other types of writing

and only a few shelves of poetry.

it has more to do with..

Well, the best analogy might be..

perfect diamonds at a jewelry bazaar.

we are not dead. we are rare, and therefore;

highly valuable.

posted by SHE @ 11:03 AM