this is not a poem

“…poetry is a very dangerous word…I don’t like the stigma that comes with being called a poet…So I call what I’m doing an improvisational adventure or an inebriational travelogue.” Tom Waits.  

I am currently working on a poetry project which partners up poetry and photography. The intention is simple; to lift poetry and photography out of the quagmire of intellects and into a wider, more mainstream audience. The project attempts to remove the stigma of poetry as ‘hard’ and ‘pretentious’ and to thereby present a unique, singular piece of art (a photo and poem) that has no right or wrong answer. In the 21^st century, poetry needs to be more visual and needs to appeal to as many readers as possible.

Anyway, I was sat with my photographer friend the other day, discussing our objective and throwing around ideas, and she said,

“Maybe poetry needs another name. I mean, most people shudder at the thought, or run the other way the second they hear the word.”

She was right. Poetry does need another name. I have the perfect example. I was reading Carolyn Forche’s The Colonel last week at lunch. It really blew me away. Then, excited, I said to an acquaintance I was with,

“Oh, hey, read this poem, it’s absolutely incredible.”

He replied, as he munched on a wet ham and cheese sandwich,

“Urrr, no thanks, I really don’t get on with poetry, just don’t get it. I don’t know what I’m looking for.”

“…Right…Hey,” I replied, “you gotta read this short story then, it’s real short but very powerful.”

“Sure.” He said and took it. It was the same piece of work, Carolyn Forche’s ‘The Colonel’ and I wondered how poetry got such a bad reputation. This then is how I decided on my blog title, this is not a poem. To re-introduce this art form back into society, perhaps we have to convince folks that poetry isn’t a puzzle, it isn’t a trick, sometimes it might not even be a poem. A poem can be so much more; it can be a story, a journal, a snippet of life or flashback, a lyric, a vignette, a psychoanalysis, a fleeting thought, a philosophy, a dream, intimacy, neglect, anger, despair, love…

But whatever it is, poetry is important, too important to neglect. I want people to read poetry, and to take something from it, anything, a single idea or emotion or enjoyment or revelation; just something they found in it, that is what poetry is all about. 

The Beginning

It will quickly become apparent what this is not a poem is, and what it believes. I do not feel it necessary or beneficial to adhere to some manifesto or objective. Like poetry, this is not a poem is an organic creation, whose seed was planted today.

What it does believe in is the beauty, the freedom and joy of poetry. It believes that poetry is a living thing that can easily be suffocated through over-analysis. Similarly, neglect can kill a poem, and neglect is killing 21^st Century poetry. To keep it alive one must read it, talk it, breathe it.

this is not a poem is not an academic study of poetry, on the contrary, it is a place where reading, writing and discussion are the sustenance for poetic longevity. It believes if poetry is to have any place in modern society, we need to keep probing it with questions and not let it shrivel. 

These questions need to be asked. Questions like, ‘what is it doing here?’, ‘why do we need it?’, ‘where is it going?’, ‘what is its purpose now and what was its purpose in the past?’, ‘who reads it?’, ‘why do they read it?’, ‘ ‘do we want it?’, ‘can we do something more with it?’, ‘where does it belong?’

These are just a few ideas this is not a poem will explore as it grows, and reminds us why poetry is so unique.