Do you like poetry?

[Ilah]

I have noticed the topic of poetry has come up in a lot of different threads and I was interested to see what break down is like between the poetry lovers, the poetry haters and those that don't care much either way.

I also wanted to bring up the idea of liking some poems, or types or poems but not others. Some people seem to lump all peotry together but there are some very different types.

I don't care for most of the poems I studied in school. I am very fond of the new generation of poetry that you have at the poetry slams. This is poetry made to be heard, not read, and the delivery of it is often very dramatic. Poetry slams seem to take place mostly in urban areas and people rhyme about things that are meaningful to them. The poems are full of emotion (without being trite), personal experiences, and serious subjects. There isn't a whole lot going on about flowers and trees.

One of the best examples I have heard of this is Def Poetry - on cable TV. There were not very many episodes but you can get it on DVD.

Ilah

[InaF3157]

I like some poetry a lot and others very little. Slam poetry for some reason irritates me. Maybe it is the delivery. Maybe I am just an old-fogey when it comes to poetry.

[disregard]

Ah, I love poetry readings.. I used to go to this coffee shop in Santa Ana called the Gypsy Den and they had open mic/poetry reading. It was pretty sweet. Great atmosphere.

[Uberfuhrer]

I don't like linguistic poetry, but I'm sure I can distort the conventional definition of poetry into a definition that will make me respond favorably to poetry. Such as visual poetry. I seem to be dazzled, for example, by an operatic film sequence. I'm interested in how science and art are combined. I think it's poetic. So in that way, I guess you can say I do like poetry. But I don't like poetry in the conventional sense.

[MacGuffin]

I'm trying, but I'm pretty ignorant.

I even have my own thread at INTPc (http://forums.intpcentral.com/showthread.php?t=15496) to help educate myself.

[Uberfuhrer]

Oh yeah, and I like limericks.

[CaptainChick]

I love great poetry and loathe awful contrived poetry.

I consider lyricists to be poets too.

I am a poet and I know it. Some of my poetry sucks, and some of my poetry rocks, but most of it's above decent.

Bukowski, Shakespeare, Ani DiFranco, Trent Reznor, and many other poets I cannot think of right now, rock my ENFP world.

[proteanmix]

I like some poetry a lot and others very little. Slam poetry for some reason irritates me. Maybe it is the delivery. Maybe I am just an old-fogey when it comes to poetry.

Slam poetry is the best! Except when every single poet gets up there talking about the Struggle. I'm all about that too, but lighten up a little plz. The last one I went a woman recited a couple pieces about proper etiquette when approaching a customer service rep and one about the Struggle and she won.

I was an English major who pretty much hated poetry.

[CaptainChick]

Slam poetry makes me weak in the knees, it evokes soooooooo much out of me, to say that I love it would be a gross understatement.

[InaF3157]

Slam poetry is the best! Except when every single poet gets up there talking about the Struggle. I'm all about that too, but lighten up a little plz. The last one I went a woman recited a couple pieces about proper etiquette when approaching a customer service rep and one about the Struggle and she won.

I was an English major who pretty much hated poetry.

I don't know . . . I am put off by predictability, and like you said it often seems about "the struggle". It seems less authentic to me because it is like they clothe themselves in "the struggle" in order to make poetry. The struggle, not their own light, makes them sing.
But mostly, I think it rubs me the wrong way because I hate direct, obvious emotional appeals to my own emotions, and the aggressiveness of it makes me feel like I am being conned into feeling. I just thought of one guy who was ever so doltishly earnest yet contrived that I wanted to slap him.

Funny, I was not an English major yet love (some) poetry.

[Orangey]

I don't know . . . I am put off by predictability, and like you said it often seems about "the struggle". It seems less authentic to me because it is like they clothe themselves in "the struggle" in order to make poetry. The struggle, not their own light, makes them sing.
But mostly, I think it rubs me the wrong way because I hate direct, obvious emotional appeals to my own emotions, and the aggressiveness of it makes me feel like I am being conned into feeling. I just thought of one guy who was ever so doltishly earnest yet contrived that I wanted to slap him.

Funny, I was not an English major yet love (some) poetry.

I feel exactly the same way (bolded part).

[heart]

I consider lyricists to be poets too.

Agree. :)

[Beat]

This poem wins.
Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

[sassafrassquatch]

Do naughty limericks count?

[Eileen]

I said "I love poetry," but I qualify that by saying that I will, in a totally elitist fashion, discount what I think to be shitty as "not poetry." This includes some poems I've written and probably plenty you all have as well. ;)

[Thursday]

I love it when its good and original
but when its a carbon copy of despair.....
:gag:

[htb]

Do naughty limericks count?That's a temptation, there.

[anii]

One of the best examples I have heard of this is Def Poetry - on cable TV. There were not very many episodes but you can get it on DVD.

You can also get it on youtube. Here's one of my favorites: YouTube - Talib Kweli - Def Poetry Jam (http://youtube.com/watch?v=sGvZ9aXg5Xs)

I also like ee cummings.

[Peguy]

I love poetry from the Romantic era. Byron, Keats, Pushkin, Lermontov, Mickiewicz, Shevchenko, etc.

Oh yeah, can't forget Peguy! ;)

[whatever]

no

unless, as Ender could have said, it is about a man from Nantucket

;)

[Ivy]

Love it. I don't think loving it means I have to love every poem ever written, though, so I didn't bother clicking the fourth option even though it's also true for me.

[GZA]

Def Poetry Jam is an awesome show!

I like some poetry, but not others. I almost never like poetry that doesn't rhyme... so most of the poetry I like is in the form of song lyrics (and music gives it a second and even third dimension to the work, anyway). I said "sometimes I like poetry".

[whatever]

oooh... I forgot- I DO love nursery rhymes :wubbie:

[InaF3157]

I feel exactly the same way (bolded part).

So I am not alone in this. nice.
I will say though that it is possible I have just not heard the really good slam poetry sessions. Come to think of it, the ones I have heard were amateurs, not established poets.

[Uberfuhrer]

If there were poems about me, then I'm sure I'd like those poems.

[Eileen]

I like smart poetry that has layers that you can pull back... plays on words, carefully placed symbols, perfect metaphors... I love the economy of language in a great poem, and the way that a great poem can be like a puzzle.

The poetry that I tend to loathe is that which just spills over with words and overt statements (especially of love or despair). It has no skill about it, no cleverness. I like clever poetry.

[Ivy]

I always like to characterize what I consider to be crappy poetry with this line from Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind":

I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!

Not all of Shelley is this bad, btw.

[Orangey]

I like Rainer Maria Rilke. Very NF of me, yes?

I don't like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdTlmRZrhR4)stuff too much...

[InaF3157]

"Dancing is a disease
because it makes me weak in the knees"
:dont: Deep brah

[Orangey]

"Dancing is a disease
because it makes me weak in the knees"
:dont: Deep brah

"Moves and Grooves to James Brown,
who always made me feel nice,
like sugar and spice."

:rolleyes2:

[Eileen]

I don't much like slam poetry for its quality of poetry-ness, but I respect the performance aspect of it and when freestyling is involved, I can be impressed by that.

It's because I am a teacher, but also because he's really pretty good, that I enjoy Taylor Mali:

YouTube - Taylor Mali on what teachers make (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxsOVK4syxU)

[Geoff]

I always like to characterize what I consider to be crappy poetry with this line from Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind":



Not all of Shelley is this bad, btw.

I grew up in the road he lived in, with she of Frankenstein fame. Only recently did I realise that this is why it was called Shelley Road!

You are right though about the over dramatic romanticism.

[CaptainChick]

"Dancing is a disease
because it makes me weak in the knees"
:dont: Deep brah

"Moves and Grooves to James Brown,
who always made me feel nice,
like sugar and spice."

:rolleyes2:
That's complete and utter crap.

Obviously you guys have not been exposed to the good shit, lol.

[Orangey]

That's complete and utter crap.

Obviously you guys have not been exposed to the good shit, lol.

No, I haven't. I've only seen amateurs. Who would you consider to be a 'good quality' slam poet?

[Jasz]

i answered "love it" but actually like some, not all.
if longer than 15-20 lines i lose interest
there are some that i really like and appreciate though

[pure_mercury]

I write poems and songs occasionally. This is a poem I wrote last autumn.

"Drowning in place"

Here I am again,
pocketful of happiness,
bottles of love.

Disappearance is a virtue,
Jean Renoir on mute.
How many angels fit on the head of a syringe?
I lost count again.

Thinking of you,
thought goes to bed.
Sports and music and politics,
all the trappings of the integrated: gone.

My reel runs out in bliss,
a valediction to the pain which I no longer deem necessary.

[CaptainChick]

No, I haven't. I've only seen amateurs. Who would you consider to be a 'good quality' slam poet?
Ani DiFranco.

And to be honest, I just watch Def Poetry Jam and some of the slam poets, (whom I don't know by name) startle me with their passion and *insight*.

[InaF3157]

Maybe I don't like being startled with passion like that :coffee:
- sincerely,
cold british fish

[Ivy]

I was a hater before I actually watched a DPJ episode. It was really impressive. It's not beatnik snap poetry or spoiled brat whining. It's really quite cool. Like Eileen says it's more performance than poetry (I don't think most of it would translate well to the page) but that's one aspect of poetry.

Poetry is really hard to define, especially when you consider that a lot of prose has poetic elements. I had to define it in a 6th grade language arts book a year or so ago and it was a real bitch. I think I eventually settled on something like "Poetry is the artful arrangement of words in a way that expresses a concept or feeling," but IMO that doesn't really hit it.

[Eileen]

Poetry is really hard to define, especially when you consider that a lot of prose has poetic elements. I had to define it in a 6th grade language arts book a year or so ago and it was a real bitch. I think I eventually settled on something like "Poetry is the artful arrangement of words in a way that expresses a concept or feeling," but IMO that doesn't really hit it.


I usually go with "writing that uses the line as a unit of composition."

[Ivy]

I usually go with "writing that uses the line as a unit of composition."

That's good! I may borrow that. :D I'm thinking the reason we have to define it open-ended like that is that many states don't have standards that apply directly to poetry as a genre so the poetry lessons are matched to the figurative language standards instead.

[CaptainChick]

Maybe I don't like being startled with passion like that :coffee:
- sincerely,
cold british fish
That's your prerogative but I must say when I'm in the presence of someone who is *both* passionate and intelligent, I get a really :wubbie: feeling.

[Orangey]

It's not beatnik snap poetry or spoiled brat whining.

LOL (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXHTN5lrWmM&feature=related)

[Ilah]

Love it. I don't think loving it means I have to love every poem ever written, though, so I didn't bother clicking the fourth option even though it's also true for me.

I intended the forth option to be for people who only seem to be into poetry of specific styles - for example liking slam poetry, but not traditonal poetry - or people that only had a few poets whose works they really liked.

I wanted to keep the options short and simple though.

Ilah

[Ivy]

I intended the forth option to be for people who only seem to be into poetry of specific styles - for example liking slam poetry, but not traditonal poetry - or people that only had a few poets whose works they really liked.

I wanted to keep the options short and simple though.

Ilah

I figured. :) I like good poetry of any style.

[Wyst]

Sure, I like poetry. But it's not an all-inclusive kind of 'like'.
Most of it I don't like but other stuff I read and it really hits home.