MODULE 1: WHAT IS POETRY? WHAT IS A POET? THINKING AND LIVING AS A POET.

The learning objectives of this module are:

• To examine the question "What is Poetry?"
• To examine the question "What is a Poet?"
• and to how you can start to think, and live as a poet.
  

WHAT IS POETRY?

Before we start learning a little more about writing poetry, let's first have a quick look at various definitions of poetry:

“Poetry; literature that evokes a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience or a specific emotional response through language chosen and arranged for its meaning, sound, and rhythm.”

www.britannica.com

Poetry - noun

• The art of rhythmical composition, written or spoken, for exciting pleasure by beautiful, imaginative, or elevated thoughts.
• Literary work in metrical form; verse.
• Prose with poetic qualities.
• Poetic qualities however manifested: the poetry of simple acts and things.
• Poetic spirit or feeling: the pianist played the prelude with poetry.
• Something suggestive of, or likened to poetry: the pure poetry of a beautiful view on a clear day.

www.dictionary.com

“Poetry is a style of writing that uses a formal organization and that is often divided up into lines or stanzas, or it refers to something beautiful.”

www.yourdictionary.com

“Poetry is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language - such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre - to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, the prosaic ostensible meaning.”

www.wikipedia.org

Paul Engle, from an article in The New York Times wrote; “Poetry is ordinary language raised to the Nth power. Poetry is boned with ideas, nerved and blooded with emotions, all held together by the delicate, tough skin of words.” John Keats, from On Axioms and the Surprise of Poetry writes; “Poetry should surprise by a fine excess and not by singularity - it should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance,” and Percy Bysshe Shelley, from A Defence of Poetry and Other Essays writes; “Poetry lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world, and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar.” There are, undeniably, many, many ways to define poetry. The English poet, literary critic, philosopher and theologian Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 - 1834) famously said poetry is: "... the best words in the best order." which is perhaps one the best and simplest answers.

What does poetry look like?

Poetry is often visually identified by the blank spaces left on the page when the poem is printed in lines, as opposed to prose, which is usually printed in paragraph form, covering the whole page. What most commonly distinguishes poetry from prose is its organization into lines. However, poetry is of course much more than its visual arrangement; poetry is often associated with an expressive quality, conveying heightened forms of perception, experience and/or emotion. This feature of poetry makes it both rewarding to study, and often challenging, for it requires the reader to read slowly and repeatedly, pausing over vivid imagery, novel uses of words, or heightened modes of perception. Much Western poetry is characterized by meter, rhyme, and lineation (we will examine this in detail a little later), yet these are not foolproof markers. Not all poems have all of these features, and some poems do not have any of them!

WHAT, OR WHO, IS A POET?

And, now let's look at a few definitions of someone who writes poetry... a Poet:

Poet - noun

• A person who composes poetry.
• A person who has the gift of poetic thought, imagination, and creation, together with eloquence of expression.

www.dictionary.com

• One who writes poetry: a maker of verses.
• One (such as a creative artist) of great imaginative and expressive capabilities and special sensitivity to the medium.
• One skilled in making poetry; one who has a particular genius for metrical composition; the author of a poem; an imaginative thinker or writer

www.merriam-webster.com

Or how about this rather poetic definition:

1. A person born with the instinct to poverty. 2. One whose ideas of the beautiful and the sublime get him in jail or Potter's Field*. 3. A worthless, shiftless chap whose poems adorn the libraries of fat shopkeepers and paunchy Philistines one hundred years after the chap has died of malnutrition. The Roycroft Dictionary Concocted by Ali Baba and the Bunch on Rainy Days.

NOTE: *Potter's Field - paupers' grave or common grave is a place for the burial of unknown, unclaimed or indigent people.

So, who or what are poets?

American poet, essayist, existentialist philosopher, songwriter, and creator/designer Criss Jami (born May 29, 1987), author of Killosophy, writes; “A poet should be so crafty with words that he is envied even for his pains.” Pulitzer Prize winner writer and poet Anne Sexton (1928 - 1974) writes; “Saints have no moderation, nor do poets, just exuberance.” Plato (Greek philosopher born 427/8 BC in Athens during the Classical period) however, famously writes; “Poets utter great and wise things which they do not themselves understand.” Yet American poet and translator Jane Kenyon (1947 - 1995) writes; “The poet's job is to put into words those feelings we all have that are so deep, so important, and yet so difficult to name, to tell the truth in such a beautiful way, that people cannot live without it.”

Most people know what poetry is, and have, at some point in their lives, come across forms of poetic verse, even if just nursery rhymes as a child, but many are unable to precisely define what poetry actually is. Is poetry art? Is it merely an alternative form of expression? Is it simply just prose re-structured? Is it none of these things? Or is it all of them? What poetry is to one person, isn't to another. What poetry means to one person, can be meaningless to another. Poetry is completely subjective, and therefore for many, can be extremely hard to define. The combination of words and structures in poetry means that it is a uniquely personal experience for everyone, with exactly the same words being read, understood (or sometimes not) and revealed in a multitude of different ways.

Poetry can be mind-bogglingly confusing or ever-so simple. It can be several pages of complicated verse, or just a few simple, easy-to-read words. But one thing we know for sure is that poetry is a story, a journey, or indeed a statement, and this is created by a careful composition of words and structure, with a sole purpose of evoking strong feeling or emotion. Poetry is about form (however that is defined), purpose, and establishing your voice, and later in the course we will help you do this as a way of supporting you through your mental health challenges.

Our objective, as a poet, is to create your own unique and personal way of telling a story or sharing your journey.

THINKING AND LIVING AS A POET

I run THE POET magazine and have promoted poetry and showcased poets for many years. I have featured over 2000 poets in almost every country in the world. I have interviewed hundreds of poets, and have published thousands of pieces of poetry, and over the years have come to understand a little about a poet's mind and their thought processes, and so when someone once asked me if I think poets are different to most other people? I said yes; I think poets are different, very different. Why? Because they see the world differently, very differently; poetry is concise and precise and structured, and that's the way a poet sees the world; concise and precise and structured.

However, as we all know, the world is not concise and precise and structured, and so poets often struggle with the everyday. Poets want the world around them to make sense, but often it doesn't. And, this in my opinion, is why poetry is so very good for people with mental health challenges; it helps them see the world in their own way, and in a way that makes sense to them.

Unlike writers of prose who can describe (often beautifully) what they see, or experience, with hundreds if not thousands of words in essays, diaries or books, poets have only a very limited number of words to convey meaning and substance to their experiences, emotions, thoughts and feelings. Poets have to be so selective, so careful, so precise and so exact. And this can be a real challenge.

Can anyone be a poet? That's a tricky question and a bit like asking if anyone can be an artist. Yes, in theory, anyone can learn the techniques of poetry, but putting these techniques into practice can, for some, be really quick and easy, but can take years and years of practice for others. But the key is to start – you can't be a painter without starting to paint, or a novelist without starting to write, and this is the same for poetry. So here are a couple of things you can do to start on your own personal journey as a poet:

1) - Take a small paper notepad and pencil with you, everywhere. Make sure it is on your 'going out of the house' list e.g. house keys, wallet (or purse!), phone, notepad and pencil. Personal tip: don't use the notepad app on your mobile phone. The reason is that if you see something that impacts you, or an emotion or feeling that overwhelms you, it is much quicker and easier to take out your notepad and pencil and immediately write it down, rather than opening your phone, searching for the app, opening a new page, typing in, and retyping because the predictive text is nothing like the word or words you wanted. Start using your paper notepad and pencil on a daily basis. Put the date on top of a new page every day, and get used to writing what you are experiencing, thinking or feeling, using just simple, single words and/or short phrases. Start now and get used to using your notepad.

Let me give you an example: You're out shopping and are standing on the pavement next to a busy road, the traffic crawls past you, endlessly. In a few simple words, what are you feeling and/or experiencing? Perhaps you might write: choking, stink, intense horrible noise, boredom (on the faces of the people in the cars), anger, crushing feeling, frustration. Most people remember things more easily if they are attached to an emotion, so practice this each and every day, and you'll start to build up a portfolio of memory-based words which can then use to write poems about your emotions and experiences.

2) Read ONE poem a day, but try to read poetry from different eras, cultures and styles. For example: on a rainy Sunday afternoon, read an extract from the Epic of Gilgamesh - the earliest surviving Western Asian epic poetry - or from the Shijing (or Shih-ching) - the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry - or perhaps an extract from Homer's The Odyssey. And when you don't have a lot of spare time, read a haiku or a sonnet, or some contemporary free-verse. There are millions of pages of poetry online. Perhaps choose a different country's poetry and/or era/style every week. HOWEVER, Just read ONE poem a day, no more, because this will get you thinking about, and focusing on one specific poem and its structure, meaning and style in much greater detail than if you read lots of different poems at the same time, or on the same day. Novel writers read novels, artists attend galleries, singers listen to music, and poets read poetry. Simple. And the more poetry you can eventually read, the better poet you will be. Fact. Oh... also, keep in mind we'll be asking you what poetry you have read and why you liked it later in the course!

CONCLUSION

I hope you've enjoyed this first module. In this module we have looked at the questions; "What is Poetry?", "What is a Poet?" and looked at how you can start to think, and live as a poet.



MODULE 2

Back to POETRY COURSE