there’s a quiet battle raging
about what is poetry
and what is not no one
wants to say what it is
they say nobody reads it anymore
because nobody
writes it correctly
poetry died sometime
in high school or
maybe high school killed it
so what we have now is prose
a.k.a counterfeit poetry
as ferlinghetti calls it
w/o punctuation and clever
line breaks
spaces
different forms
that
alienate
the reader who
is now
not reading poetry
cause nobody really
gives a shit
except you
and maybe
me
Be Not Inhospitable to Strangers 
Witty and the last line
especially
i meant the last 2 lines
It wouldn’t let me stair step some lines /would have added a punch
Maybe we should just call it something else. I never know what to call the things I write. I know its not poetry proper, but what is it?
I once saw a wonderful piece of art . . . over a page from a book, the artist had written . . . “Art is what you can get away with.” Perhaps we could steal that and simply say . . . Poetry is what you can get away with.
Just a thought.
Miss D
AH, superb! Love the way, especially, in which this is a quiet battle, initiated by high school.
But this is so true too; just yesterday I was told by my dad about my last blog entry (The Death of Stars), that verses today are getting too abstract for him to understand.
I’m not against him; he’s a super intelligent man; but I agree completely on how the current education system, sticking to its forms and rules, kills most creative instincts within people along with their imaginations. Especially as a musician, I see this so often; people are scared to move around a violin’s fingerboard cause they’re afraid of hitting the wrong note. They don’t realize that nobody’s going to hit them if they play wrong, and that they won’t play right unless they play wrong a million times and find out right for themselves!
Ah, I digress again…
Yayayayayayayayayayay. I am so glad you said that and so much better than I could have. Rage on Scot!
well said well said
all because too many folks spend theirtime worrying about what other folks think
Thanks all from top to bottom–and ozy!…you hit that on the head–where is a ginsberg when you need one?
I don’t think we need one, we have a Scot Young instead.
I give a shit, I like your poetry
Nice. I like this a lot. Applies to most art forms… whenever you deviate too far from the norm, your artistic validity is questioned by the masses.
[…] [inspired by: Counterfeit Poetry] […]
PS: You inspired me to write another poem… ;0) Thanks!
Great post. I recently did a post on an old school poet, Robert Frost, and was thinking how far poetry has strayed from its structure and roots. I have mixed feelings on it. I love that the genre has been opened up to anyone who can write. But, like I learned in art school – it is good to learn the way the masters painted – then break the structure. I think there is value in both.
socratesoul
glad you were inspired!
qm
I will check out that post–you are correct, there is value in both
enigma
thanks for the giving and the comment
I really like this one a lot!
Well good for you. Check it out, I’m a bit old fashion
http://wolfieee.wordpress.com/