SCOTT'S POETRY MANIFESTO

Dishonesty… The very idea might be semantics, but let the artists leave that debate to the lawyers. A poem should come from a clear, honest perspective. Isn’t there enough insincerity in the world without adding to it? Poetry must be honest and personal. I think that writing poetry should be approached from a personal perspective and expressed with a natural sincerity. There is a common declaration in regards to writing. A sort of mantra that is useful to writers. You should write what you know. Makes sense I think.

I see writing, whether it be poetry, short stories, music, or screenplays as a personal endeavor. One should be overwhelmed with the feeling of obligation to be true to them and know that they must write from a perspective that is genuine. In writing poetry, form, rhythm and meter are of lesser importance than truthfulness and integrity. This idea of writing from an honest place might seem obvious. However, I’ve, like most people, have had to read poems that were thin and of no interest because they were not from a personal view.

If you are attempting to express an idea or emotion in writing, then shouldn’t you have insight to what you are dispensing in poetry? It’s important that the writer has some knowledge with the subject matter. Their understanding doesn’t have to be profound. Maybe the topic is limited or a peripheral to their personal experience. Without an authentic, clear experience to draw from, a poem might get lost in its struggle to swim out into the deep end. This leaves the reader to fill in the empty aspects with their own life experience as metaphoric life preserver for the poem.

Is it a realistic expectation to attempt writing about being heartbroken when you are in kindergarten and have never known romantic love? You wouldn’t have the experience, the ability to write and the best you could do would be to yell out with your limited vocabulary and hope that someone understands the gist of it. One needs the vocabulary to express these profound feelings otherwise it paramount to an orchestra performing the works of Beethoven by banging together rocks This is overly simplified I realize, but it generally shows the potential issue with writing on a matter that you are not, as an individual, connected.

Being honest and personal provides an environment that pressures those who might not challenge themselves to think and search their own heart to discover what lies below the surface. Is there really a need to feed the melodramatic and enable those who are not pushed beyond the superficial? Isn’t it less manipulative to provide a clear, sincere message? Honest communication of one’s passions and stresses provides the straightest route to the reader’s heart and mind.

This doesn’t mean that a poem can only be direct. Though cutting to the chase is a preference of mine, I do have a great appreciation for poets who can float nuances through their prose. This can be done without alienating the audience and leaving the reader to interpret a poem without a clear voice. Does a good poem really have to be so convoluted that you must pontificate with the other coffee house brood to pull what meaning you can from the piece?

The language of poetry can confuse and distance the intended reader if not utilized in such a way that welcomes the person who reads the poem. I find it frustrating to read a poem that is written so that it might float over the audiences head and leave me more lost after reading than before. It’s similar to reading scholarly journals that appear to be written less for the potential user, who wants to learn about the subject, than to show off for peers.

The dictionary defines a poem as “a verbal composition designed to convey experiences, ideas, or emotions in a vivid and imaginative way, characterized by the use of language chosen for its sound and suggestive power and by the use of literary techniques such as meter, metaphor, and rhyme.” The first part of the definition clearly reinforces what I’ve expressed about personal experiences and emotions being the root of what a poem is supposed to be. The definition goes on to say that it is done with the use of “literary techniques” which might include the use of a greater vocabulary.

I said previously that form, rhythm and meter are of less importance than the writer’s honest interpretation of their point of view. That is not to say that these elements are of no importance at all. In fact they are the corner stone to what makes up a poem and what eventually defines a poem for most people.

I enjoy and appreciate poetic forms that develop both meter and rhyming in a way that gets the reader caught up in the story. A poem with good meter and rhyme creates a flow that the reader can ride along like a boat on a river. The poem can either be that wild and adventurous or calm and serene experience. Regardless of how wild the ride might get we go with it until the end. I also think poetry willing to follow some form rhythm provides something innate that resonates with our core. Back to whom we were as we began our lives. Rhythm provides a comfort that might be reminiscent of a baby in the womb. Hearing its mother’s heartbeat. From childhood on I think that poems that hold thematically, maintain a meter, and can make use of a rhyme scheme are the easiest to read and sound the most musical. Those are the poems that can pull in the laymen like me in to deep, rich universe of poetry.

Regardless of how you choose to use, or not use, the techniques of poetry it is imperative that it is written from a wholly honest and personal perspective. In a real effort to be sincere I think that you are in the best position to reach out to and connect with the reader. This provides them with either a new experience or a way that they can remember one of their own. The selected poetic form doesn’t limit the writer in being able to relate ideas to the person who reads poetry.

Poetry, like paintings, music, or movies, is generally taken to mean different things to different members of its audience. Each person that reads a poem will have diverse ideas as to what a “real” poem might be. The audience always defines these artist accomplishments in their own way. And the truth is… it’s all subjective. Including how one should go about writing their individual poetry.