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Why Poetry
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Anyone who really, really knows me knows the answer to this question. I am a product of the ADD (attention deficit disorder) generation. I am not ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) I'm sure of that because I'm probably one of the most laid back people you will ever meet. I do have a short little attention span however and consequently my mind jumps from one impulse to the other faster than bullet in a steel room. The only exception is solving an extremely complex problem or reading a good book.
I have tried writing long prose or even novel and while I start fine, I end up with at most three chapters. It is the dance I do with dreams that I can never complete because when I waltz with my dreams ADD cuts in with a dose of inattention and mind wandering jitterbug. |
That's not the only reason I've preferred poetry however. I have played with several styles of poetry from the lyric to the conjuring of images. I love the fact that I can let my mind go and follow it with my fingers on the keys. I do wish I were a better typist so I could keep up a little better. I love images and spin painting the words. All the while wondering if what I write is of any use for the reader.
My foremost hope is that what I write plays like a piece of art with the reader. Where they may not see exactly what I see but the image imagined is truly from within them and it allows them to deal with their feelings. I have no illusions of being great. I know that poets have less of a chance to be recognized than does any other artist in almost any other medium. I once read that everyone was poet and very few would ever be called a poet. |
Poetry is above all the very best way to learn something you rarely hear. That something is how can I say the most with the least number of words in the most memorable way. My best example comes from Edna St. Vincent Millay. The words are few but speak to her philosophy of life so eloquently has influenced people since those words were first published.
"My candle burns at both ends It shall not last the night but Oh! my foes and Ah! my friends It gives a lovely light."
Poetry will always be the language of the human spirit. All other writing is an exercise in describing the poetry of life in detail.
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