Does it annoy you when people try to write a 'poem' but totally miss the

[axe_muppet]

point of poetry? I'm not in favour of TOTAL rigidity in my poems as some people are but I believe in at least respecting what sounds good. By this I mean writing with meter (even if it's not remotely uniform) and using poetic devices such as assonance and consonance (even if it's not part of a rhyming scheme).

When I read poems that people have written that don't have any of these devices I feel like an artist standing in a gallery who has just seen some guy walk in off the street to exhibit a Spirograph that he's just done.

Basically what I'm saying is: break the rules if you have to - by all means! But you MUST put feeling and beauty in to it. Or ugliness. Just something! Simply splitting one of your diary entries in to multiple lines and taking out punctuation isn't poetry!

Anyone agree?

[Pat]

to define anything limits is ability to grow, expand, evolve, fly free, even yawn.
Like Pluto, the planet which is definitively no longer a planet but a minor planet is still a planet, albeit a minor one?
Is a rose by any other name still a rose?
Shakespeare asked that; William Shakespeare. He was the poet who made up words and names and phrases and introduced a vast majority of exceptions to the then known rules of literature and became one of our most beloved poets. Have you ever read Chaucer? Read him then talk rules.

Poetry? Just what is it? A sigh? A cry? Even an attempted poem is a poem or an imperfect poem is still a poem. If we were to make inflexible judgements upon anything , a person for instance and demand adherence to the rules I would be tossed to the junk pile of life because my audience was split.. You see the problem with rules and restrictions is this.
I am a song with no singer,
a blind man who can see,
a race for legless runners.
a poem , a wish to be.

We can however help poets to make their thoughts clearer and their poetry more beautiful by offering not criticism and rules but alternatives, encouragement and support.

Other than outright plagiarism inspiration comes in many forms. I have been spurred by works as benign as a passing word, someone Else's prayer. A seed catalogue.

[jamiestewart111]

i agree completely, the way that poetry can be presented in one solid chunk of text with no poetical substance and schemes leaves nothing to the imagination and just doesnt flow at all. The devices poets use that are not deployed in these poems often encourage many different emotions and one can then truly appreciate the piece.
I know what you mean, poetry in the form that you dislike CAN be good but only when it has substance and passion that is portrayed in a suitable manner not just dull sentences.

[Monkey D]

nope, doesn't bother me at all.

[Evadne Terra]

I believe in breaking the rules, I try poetic forms and find they constrict the feeling. So, I must wonder, if breaking the rules leads to the passion and soul that you say must be there, what am I, as a poet and an artist, to do? Seek validation from others; or find it within my work. However, I am so angered when I see work that is a split diary entry into multiple lines without spelling and with text speak and no punctuation. So...yes, it does annoy me when people try to write a poem but do not put their soul into it, or at least their imagination.

[Avondrow]

I think Pam Ayers has a lot to answer for! A whole generation thinks that if you can get the last words of your sentences to rhyme, even if it means mispronunciation, then you have poetry!

McGonigal, thou should be living now!

[kleptomanic sheep]

"writing free verse is like playing tennis without the net"

diary poetry shoul dbe a new "genre" - one to avoid.

[poetryz.890m]

i agree!! yea, i agree w/you!

[Stevalia]

In some respects yes I do agree; but on the other hand it doesn't come easy with some who would like to be able to write beautiful poetry in verse or prose with or without rhyme assonance and consonance, sometimes these useful devices can alter the meaning that was intended at other times it can enhance meaning depending as you say how it is used: if used skillfully is like a precious jewel place in a signet ring.

[Kit S]

I love it when poems break the rules but i agree that i can't stand it when people start writing poems that will have no meaning and will just sound exactly like another poem i have heard several times. The ones that have no imagination or feeling and don't understand what poetry is, not trying to understand Wordsworth or Shakespeare just sticking to the cliche