To
rhyme or not to rhyme, that is the question. Sorry about that Shakespeare. I
have been writing poetry off and on since I was a teenager – more off than on
until I started college as a nontraditional student in my early forties. It was
then I took my first English class since high school. English 101. The professor,
Vivian Pemberton, suggested I submit an essay I’d written to ICON, the literary
magazine of the Trumbull branch of Kent State University. In the essay, “Saying
Goodbye”, I wrote about my son’s last hours of life the year before. It was
accepted and every semester after that, I submitted not essays but poems. Most
of the magazine contained poetry, a few pieces of art work and the occasional
essay.
So
what is poetry? Robert Frost said “Poetry is the kind of thing poets write.” It’s
not that Frost couldn’t have expounded at length, it’s that poetry is not
always easy to define. It eludes simple explanations. It’s a form of writing that creates an
emotional response, a piece of work that makes some connection to the reader.
To be better understood, a poem needs to be read and studied to allow the poem to
grow in your mind. It is much like music in that respect. Some poems are as
simple as a well-known tune with no deeper meaning. Others have more depth and only develop more meaning for a reader the
more often they are read and studied.
Much
of last month I spent on writing new poems or editing and revising older poems
for The Ohio Poetry Day contests – about 30 different contests under one
blanket. For a flat fee of $10.00, a poet could enter as many of them as they
chose or were qualified to enter. A few contests are only for Ohio poets, but
almost all are open to anywhere in the English speaking world. Some poems come
from as far away as Australia, the UK, Canada, and include many states other
than Ohio. This year I entered twenty-one contests a day before the deadline of
May 31st. Did I ever mention I’m a terrible procrastinator?
Although
writing poetry seems far different from writing prose like blogs and the mysteries
I write, they do have elements in common like finding the perfect word to convey
a feeling or a picture, or to adequately express an emotion. Some poems are
easy to understand and relate to, especially the rhyming or humorous poems.
Others take more time and reading to understand what the poet is trying to
convey and just as many can be interpreted in different ways to fit the reader’s
interpretation.
Of
course, that is where poetry varies from writing prose in which the author
wants the reader to get what they’re saying and not have to reread and ponder
the meaning of a sentence or paragraph. Mysteries especially need to keep the
reader eagerly reading and not pausing in thought, although I’ll admit to
enjoying a particularly good and evocative description of either a person or a
scene in a well-written mystery especially if it’s well done. In Jane Langton’s
book, Divine Inspiration, I love her
simple offbeat descriptions like “After the fire Mrs. Frederick came forward
with her arms full of money. ‘The best,’ she said to James Castle, ‘Get the
very best.’” This is so much better than saying the very rich woman to describe
her, isn’t it?” This book - as in all of Langton’s books - is filled with descriptions
that are almost poetical like her description of this receptionist. “The dragon
glared at him. Little streams of smoke
leaked from her reptilian jaw.” Because it has a musical theme, I found
“catapulting counterpoint” and “the lingering scent of perfumed sopranos and
clean-shaven tenors,” -quite delicious descriptions. In fact, it’s her
descriptions and humor as well as her plots and rich characters that make Jane
Langton one of my favorite mystery writers.
Although
writing a poem seems simple, after all how can writing a page or two of lines
even begin to compare with a chapter of a novel a writer is working on? In
truth, except for the occasional short poem that almost seems to write itself,
it takes a lot of work to write a poem. I can spend as much time, and often
more, on writing one poem as I can on writing a short story or chapter in my
current work in process. I’m not talking about the numerous revisions and
polishing, of course. But just like my
mysteries, my poetry goes through numerous revisions and rereading so that months
or years later, I’m still apt to make changes here and there. I also believe
writing poetry is a good discipline for the mind because the difference from
prose makes it challenging. Some people work crossword puzzles or Sudoku to
exercise the brain, I choose poetry.
Do
you write poetry?
What
other things to you use to exercise your brain?
