Kind of sort of off topic, but not completely: Poetry

[Dan Worley]

I'm posting this here because a lot of people involved in writing and making music are also into poetry, and I've heard and read so much bad poetry lately that I just had to do something, so I thought I'd post this famous and most wonderful poem, "Ars Poetica" (The Art (or Nature) of Poetry) by Archibald MacLeish in hopes that it will help some people out.

If you think you're a poet, or you're just starting out, please read this, study it, and learn from it.

I am not a poet (I was never any good at it), but reading and listening and studying poetry is one of my passions.

This is not to be taken as rules, but it is the nature of the Art.

And just to mention, poetry can be used as lyrics, but writing lyrics is a completely different skill from writing poetry. However, many times writing lyrics more like poetry is a the best way to go for the song.

c-ya,

Dan Worley


Ars Poetica
by Archibald MacLeish

A poem should be palpable and mute
As a globed fruit,

Dumb
As old medallions to the thumb,

Silent as the sleeve-worn stone
Of casement ledges where the moss has grown—

A poem should be wordless
As the flight of birds.

*

A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs,

Leaving, as the moon releases
Twig by twig the night-entangled trees,

Leaving, as the moon behind the winter leaves,
Memory by memory the mind—

A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs.

*

A poem should be equal to:
Not true.

For all the history of grief
An empty doorway and a maple leaf.

For love
The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea—

A poem should not mean
But be.

[HCMarkus]

Thanks Dan.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Somehow I don't think some of the beat poets would agree with much of that ☺ But thanks for posting it. I'm a bigger fan of Emily Dickenson than I am of Bukowski, but having gotten drunk with the latter, he does hold a special place in my heart...

I STARTED early, took my dog

I STARTED early, took my dog,
And visited the sea;
The mermaids in the basement
Came out to look at me,

And frigates in the upper floor
Extended hempen hands,
Presuming me to be a mouse
Aground, upon the sands.

But no man moved me till the tide
Went past my simple shoe,
And past my apron and my belt,
And past my bodice too,

And made as he would eat me up
As wholly as a dew
Upon a dandelion’s sleeve—
And then I started too.

And he—he followed close behind;
I felt his silver heel
Upon my ankle,—then my shoes
Would overflow with pearl.

Until we met the solid town,
No man he seemed to know;
And bowing with a mighty look
At me, the sea withdrew.

~Emily Dickenson

[cloudsplitter]

I wish I could play music as well as I write Poetry/lyrics....... I guess you have to stick with what you're good at.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Being good at anything is more than enough.

[billf]

MLC, your avatar had me thinking for a brief moment that Safari locked up on me. Curses!

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Hee hee....

[mhschmieder]

Up until around the time I arrived in California at age 33, I was a very active and prolific poet, even bothering to get myself published (ythough I long ago lost interest in maintaining any visibility over what was and wasn't).

I came to a realisation later on that Paul Simon was wrong: song lyrics aren't poems. Well, it works for him. I decided to focus on becoming a better lyricist instead, and decided to leave poetry for the Russians and Latin Americans.

Probably the incident that most changed my view of poetry was a solo concert by Maddy Prior in 1992 or thereabouts. She interspersed her songs with humour and short poems, exclaiming that "poems are much like farts: no one much minds their own".

I did a reality check after that, and realised it's a rather self-indulgent pursuit. But as my grandmother loved poetry and kept encouraging me, I continued writing them until her death.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

For me, FWIW, songs are soliloquies, especially in theatre but also pretty much any song. Of course there are plenty of exceptions we can cite but of all the songs I personally like that applies.

[Dan Worley]

With lyrics, you can get away with lines like, "It's a beautiful day." In poetry (good poetry) you can't. The reader needs to experience the beauty. Just saying it means nothing. With lyrics you have the music and melody to help the experience along. Many times the lyric is secondary or an after thought.

For me (and this isn't an original thought of mine, but I agree with it), poems should only be written when the feeling or emotion or thought or idea can not be communicated any other way. There are poems that can get deep in my soul. I feel them. I experience them. I live them. I could read the same theme (for lack of a better word) in prose or hear it in a lyric or see it in a painting or movie or play, and it will not have nearly as strong of an impact on me.

c-ya,

Dan Worley