There is No Such Thing as a Bad Poem
There's an old walrus from Nantucket
who'd a whisker so long you could pluck it
he cried out in ire,
his eyes burned like fire,
'cuz they came and stole 'way his bucket.
The fun thing about limericks, a five line poem with an "AABBA" rhyming style, is that they are short, most are funny, and they are easy to write. Limericks can be written about pretty much anything you can imagine. I wrote the one above, referring to the popular image of a walrus, shown also above.
Poetry is a form of art involving the manipulation of words to create or express emotion, tell a story, or any reason, really. Poems have been used to share love, joy, hatred, pain and sorrow. Poetry can be long, for example the most recent declaration that the world's longest poem contains over 98,000 words and is 728 pages long!
Poetry has no definition of quality. If, when writing a poem you start with one style in mind and the words mold themselves into a different style, you're still writing good poetry. If the words, feelings and flow make sense to you, it's good poetry.
Repeat after me: There is no such thing as bad poetry. All poetry is creative outlet in words, and creativity is good. A difference in perspective does not mean lesser quality.
Good. Now that you have that out of the way, here is another poem.
My dreams are plagued with empty halls
Outside my windows a darkness rests
Reigning in my fear, I reach for you in my sleep
Gathering handfuls of your flesh and drawing you near
A wash of relief warms my soul
Now I can sleep, fitful and calm, my love in my arms till the dawn.
The poem above is an example of what is called an acrostic poem, wherein each line of the poem begins with a certain letter. These letters, when arranged in order as they appear, form a word, phrase or sentence. In the poem above, the word presented is my ex-husbands first name, Morgan.
A poem may seem as if it is nonsense, may rhyme or not, may be arranged in a way that reads oddly or perfectly normal. None of these elements make a poem bad or good, simply different.
So, rather than trying to consider what makes a poem good, why not approach the poetry you read from the standpoint of difference? What makes the poems you read different from others? Do you prefer one style of poetry over another? Why is this the case?
Comments
I do like your poetry and its explanation!
- AUTHOR
All poetry is -ive. It can be constructive, destructive, impulsive, a great many things. That's the lovely thing about art. :)
Poetry is always good,however constructive poetry is better.
- AUTHOR
I can't agree with you on that, Whitney. By your words and mine, poetry is an art. Art isn't about right or wrong, good or bad. It is about art. There is nothing wrong or bad about a poem which has, say, purposefully misspelled words.
There is nothing wrong or bad about writing a poem mimicing the style of your favorite poet (so long as you don't steal their phrases en masse, or parrot their content.)
There are no absolutes when it comes to art. Whether you're using a pencil, a paint brush or a digital medium, art is never bad, wrong, or improper.
True, as was brought up in my hub. I do agree that no poem is WRONG, but some can be done better to evoke the same feel. I also don't agree that people need to go off writing with the idea that they can get away with the same rule breaks as the "greats."
I've seen poems without any punctuation. Yes, some great poets can get away with this, not everyone can. Poetry is the art of the mind, body, and spirit. But at the same time I find that it is judgeable and easier to critic than to write.
An old soul - that's what it is! I've never heard of the acrostic poem before. And I've been writing poetry a while now. Thank you - you can learn something every day.
Laurie B.
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