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How to Not Hate Poetry

That Weird Writing Medium

By 'Toto' (Aleksina Teto)Published 6 years ago 4 min read
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Photo by Brodie Vissers from Burst 

So, I'm sitting down with a cup of coffee, chatting peacefully, but then it happens... somehow, we start talking about poetry. The idea of it makes me smile, while for my beverage buddy, they practically shudder with disgust.

Maybe poetry conjures an image of this knightly man or lady reading to you or some wonderfully defined scene or emotion, but for a lot of people, that isn't what comes to mind. One common perception is a literary snob, seemingly trying to prove their intelligence and express just how insightful they are, and force the 'beauty of poetry' down throats.

Then comes when you say you write poetry. For many people, they go straight into thinking it's all overly emotional venting with incessant complaints of this feeble existence and the unforgiving world. And hey, that might be part of it.

Poetry. That term has so many mixed reaction, feelings, and emotions to it. Centuries ago, there was such high praise to eloquent and lovely use of language, so poetry was held in high regard. As time passes, we are reaching a point where poetry is still attached to its old denotations and connotations, making it feel obsolete.

We see splattering of some poets that have rose above the rest in relatability, seemingly revolutionizing the medium into the modern age. But, in all honesty, we've already been there, just poetry has had a hard time getting a chance.

How do you enjoy poetry?

What does poetry's modern iteration look like?

Poetry has had a tendency to look like an exclusive club. There is this cloud around it saying you have to be a trained literary scholar to really be able to appreciate it or write any quality poetry. That is a load of bull. Sure, some snobs will complain if you don't 100% understand each technique or have a grammatical fumble. But generally, saying this as someone who is a published poet, I just want people to enjoy poetry, and not either roll their eyes or put me on a pedestal when I say I'm a poet.

And, poetry has evolved so much! Honestly, you could argue that many memes could be called modern poetry (don't kill me literary folk). Poetry can be images with words, short as one word, or the length of a novel. It doesn't have to have rhyme, alliteration, or any rhythm. Those concepts are just there as extra little chocolates. Though, honestly sometimes it just turns the piece into some chocolaty mess.

The main purpose of poetry is to play with words and expression. Poetry in particular is ideal for short bursts of play with an image, a scene, a sound, or even an opinion. It's meant to be liberating! Yes, a lot of it ends up being emotional venting, but hey, that's okay too. It is a great medium for processing emotion to help mental health.

For reading it, there is a lot of confusing poetry out there that takes a while to really slow down and decipher, but you don't have to understand every tiny meaning and aspect of it. It's okay to just enjoy the sound, or read it and only really relate or fully absorb one line. Not every poem has to be analysed ad nauseum. And here's the secret, each piece means something completely different to different people. You are allowed to read into it whatever you like. Think of a piece of music with no words. It will make you feel a certain way. The person next to you might feel similar from it, but there's a high chance they feel at least slightly different from it. That's what poetry does.

When I was in communications classes, what really stood out for me was when we studied connotation, denotation, and myth. These three parts of a word make you look at what the word makes you think of, what the dictionary definition is, and then what the culture around that word is. But! The biggest thing was how each person had different connections they made to the word. And that's how you enjoy poetry. Let yourself connect whatever you want to connect to a word, phrase or image.

How do you write poetry?

Symbolism. There you go. You're done. Just kidding. But, in all honesty poetry is largely about symbolism. What I was just saying about attachments to words, you can just write a poem entirely about you just fleshing out what something makes you think or feel. Take a banana. There are some very various thoughts that come to mind when told the word banana. I for some reason think of the Yellow Submarine as a banana... who knows why. But hey, that's the start of poetry, writing about a banana submarine floating through the water being nibbled on by aquatic monkeys, because bananas make me think of monkeys.

Make connections, express thoughts and feelings, talk about a scene you're looking at that is mesmerizing you. Poetry is made to be quick and expressive. Take the time to put an extra 30 seconds on a Twitter post to make it "poetic:" find a synonym, paint a picture, express a quick story, expand.

Conclusion

Okay, this might have just become a rather jumbled rant about poetry, but hey, my main purpose was to maybe make you see poetry a little different. It doesn't have to be convoluted. For that matter, it doesn't have to make sense. Enjoy expressing yourself. Enjoy language. But honestly, just have some fun.
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About the Creator

'Toto' (Aleksina Teto)

A Canadian designer, writer, typographer, and artist.

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