I have things to say today.
LET'S TALK ABOUT THEM.
Instead of saying, 'I know what you're going to say," I will instead say I imagine there are one or two of you that were thinking of saying (or would be thinking of saying if I was physically present with you), "Wow, Lydia, you are blogging so regularly now!" to which I would respond, "Yeah, well, don't get used to it." I have been in college for...um, three years, but I think I meant to say I've been here since a few Fridays ago, as in here, in this apartment, being a senior. We talked about this already. Or maybe we didn't, but it's anything but crucial.
Let's move on.
Today's subject is a rant-gone-tutorial, because this morning I woke up with a ravenous desire to force my knowledge on people (exaggeration). Actually, five minutes ago I suddenly had a ravenous desire to blog, and the quickest thing to hop to the front of my mind-line (metaphor, weird metaphor) was forcing my knowledge on people. The following is based on my wealth of experience and expertise on the subject (lies), my overwhelming boredom, and the fortitude with which various members of my opinions have decided to make themselves known to the world (personification).
this is a post about poetry.
Here is my (probably way too) vulnerable announcement of the day: I write poems. I primarily write them in this tiny journal my roommate Sarah gave to me, but they have been known to make appearances in older journals and Word documents and old church bulletins and school flyers and old sheets of notebook paper, and sometimes I stumble upon them years later and am shocked and appalled, but that, I suppose, is the creative process. Once or twice I find something I wrote in sixth grade and wonder why I never ended up more talented. Actually, that did only happen once, but if you say once or twice, it makes it sound like it happened way more often and you're just being humble.
A lot of people are skeptical about poetry, or just don't enjoy it. Which makes sense; some people don't even like chocolate. We can't all have the same taste; if you want to talk about that, go find someone who feels like being philosophical. I am not there right now. This is not what I am trying to address. I actually don't really want to address anything super critical about the subject, but that always ends up happening regardless of my motive.
More along the lines of what I wanted to talk about is how humans of all walks of life feel enabled and obligated to criticize various poems based on what they do and do not like. This is something I understand, because as I said earlier, everyone has different taste. One is not required to immersively (not a word) read a piece writing one does not find to be pleasing. But one is also not required to stare fervently at visual art that one does not find to be enjoyable. I mean, think about the Mona Lisa. Honestly. It's super cool, and I enjoy it, but I probably would not put the Mona Lisa up in my house. You totally can (a copy; the original is very much not for sale, I'm gathering), but I'm not really that into pictures of people that stare at you from whatever angle you are in the room, and that's the vibe I'm getting from her. Do I admit that Leonardo is talented? Okay, obviously he nailed it, and I admire what he has accomplished. But I don't stare at it all the time and find overwhelming meaning, because
a) I know little to nothing about art history, which limits the story behind it
b) I don't care enough (sad, but true)
c) I am blinded by the culture that has amplified it to its current position of "most famous painting in the world" and therefore cannot look at it without that lens in front of me
d) I do not understand, from a professional standpoint, what it took to make the piece, although I'd guess that it was pretty difficult
Okay? Do you understand? You can not like famous art, and it's still undeniably art. You can not like famous literature, and guess what? Literature. That is still what it is. Oddly enough, this applies to all aspiring and growing forms of art as well; just because it is created by someone who hasn't quite gotten to the big leagues doesn't mean it isn't something that reflects personal expression. You hear me?
EXPRESSION.
PERSONAL.
People can still write poetry if you don't like it. You probably guessed I am the kind of person who appreciates expression through writing, so I am going to fight for it. Obnoxiously.
Of course, you can't just dive right into it and say that you've created something revolutionary. This is why Pinterest bothers me. There are many deep caverns of Pinterest, and the largest of them all are the off-center-over-filtered-dramatic-picture cavern, the minimalist-display-version-of-the-object-of-interest cavern, and the recipes-with-one-too-many-ingredients cavern. I freely indulge in several of these caverns, with low levels of shame, personally striving to avoid stubbing my toes on the stones of dramatically-vibrant-misquotes or falling down the deep, dark hole of zebra print accents. However, during your perusal of the cave system that I have made this website out to be, every now and then you will see etched on a wall pictures and writings that someone has made out of very many of their feelings, and some of them will be well-written or well-drawn or at least very meaningful, and some of them will be ripped straight off of a sixteen-year-old's Tumblr, and they will almost always say little to nothing. That does not mean it is not art...admittedly, sometimes, it makes me doubt that I have talent, because if people are confident enough to flaunt this sort of haphazard word assembly on the internet, why can't I read mine to my parents, who are basically obligated to love me?
The moral of the story is that it takes time. If you want to share what you've made with someone, feel free, and if they hate it, take it in stride, I guess, but don't let that stop you. (Obviously the fear of criticism is something I relate to.) Everyone has to start somewhere; the point is to be actively creating something and letting little pieces of yourself walk around outside of you and say, "Hey! I am a person with thoughts and feelings, and that is cool!" I know it sounds weird, but you don't have to do things simply on the grounds of whether or not other people appreciate them. The fame and acclamation requires growth and patience. Actually, it requires an obscene number of internal connections, usually, so who even cares.
There are a lot of people who only appreciate poetry in limited forms, as well. Most people strongly associate poetry with rhyme, which makes sense, because songs rhyme, and children's books rhyme, and a lot of older, more established poems rhyme. It is easier to figure out or remember a poem if the lines end in the same sounds, because you're so often struck with, "OH! How clever. They must be talented." I mean, when you say things that rhyme that mean nothing, you always notice it, and then make jokes about how you're a poet and didn't know it. Rhyme is just something that strikes us. But the mentality of people who think in this way would say, "If this person worked hard to find rhyming sounds and rhythmic patterns why does your poem get to be a poem too because all it looks like is a bunch of words with weird spaces? Hmm?" To which I would say that if the "free verse" or "non-rhyming" poem (they would say free verse or non-rhyming "poem") has to make up for the shock-and-awe-type rhyme factor with sheer poignancy, then maybe it's harder.
Personally I think both are equally hard, but then again, I'm a step above a sixteen-year-old's Tumblr, maybe.
This is just to say there are a variety of ways to compose poetry, with a variety of schematics. For some, the Dr. Suess pattern works well with rhymes and rhythms that match, but you have all the couplets or the triplets or the alternations, so you can make that your own, and then you have the rule breakers who don't rhyme, but then some of them have a rhythmic pattern that is very evident, and then some have no pattern at all. Some people leave out punctuation symbolically. Some people don't capitalize anything, and not just to be trendy. And then you have the people who write their poems and to make shapes out of the words (physical shapes, not metaphorical ones, but that happens, too). And the people who write acrostic poems. And the people who make the absolute most of the word sounds and turn everything into a giant onomatopoeia (of course that is a word but immersively isn't. BUY A CONSONANT). And then you have haiku, which is...who even knows. You have a variety of options.
Isn't this so fun and exciting? Look what you can do with words! You can SAY things. So fun! You should do it. Really. Go do it right now. Yes, you, you snarky art-hater whom I have judged so strongly since I began to write this two days ago. Go write a poem. Here are the rules/tips/suggestions/proposals I just made up right now to encourage you/seriously it's fun go do these things:
1. Anything goes. DO WHAT YOU WANT. I am so excited for you.
2. Rhyming is fine, but you can't just assume you're doing something cool because it rhymes. You have to actually have something to say. That's honestly the point. If you don't have anything to say (which I honestly doubt), write one tomorrow. I can't deal with any more people spinning straw into profundity. It is just too much.
3. If you choose not to rhyme, it will probably sound awkward at first, but do not let that stop you.
4. Start with paper/pen, so you have to draw lines through the parts you don't like and can observe how you changed it more easily, and then type it so you can orient it spatially and SAVE YOUR ART FOREVER AND EVER YAY.
5. Be bold. Change your mind about what you wanted to say. Cross that crap out. Change your mind back. Write it again. Have no shame.
6. If it turns into prose, accept it. These things happen.
7. If it makes you feel things, DON'T STOP.
8. Okay, objection. If it makes you feel a lot of things and you really need to just cry it out, then totally feel free to stop. Sometimes that's what you needed to do anyway.
9. If you think more/differently afterward, you did it right.
10. DON'T THROW IT AWAY. EVER.
See? I think you can do it. The last thing I want to say is that you don't have to feel like you have to tell everyone you did it. I write these kinds of things...often...and it is exceedingly rare that I let them flutter out into the visual ranges of any human, even humans I care about. I really wanted to be able to share one in an effort to say something like, "If I can, you can!" but it honestly is too scary for me. Also very many of them were born out of very dark periods of life and that is a lot to share with random blog watch sites from France who have found me on the internet. (Hi, France!)
And if it's scary for you, maybe that means you did something significant or said something important (or at least cathartized, which is always good, and once again so far from being a word), whether or not someone finds it and wants to hang it up or Pin it on their "Inspiration" board (or their Tumblr). Or maybe you'll find your gift and become more famous than I ever will be because of my terrified refusal to publicize.
Either way, I'm proud of you.
fin.
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