social commentary
There's a rich history of poetry serving as social commentary, intended to inspire calls to action.
Surface Thoughts
Is it abstract or concrete to cry until you puke? And then The image of the vomit splattered across the Cobblestones Is that showing or telling or engaging in Melodramatic Prose that can only live long enough to find itself Thrown out In the trash of some know-it-all literary freak? What about the feeling, hot and acidic, right before Crashing To the knees, pressing jeans into damp earth and Screaming? Is that the kind of thing that no one will believe Just because They've never experienced the universe reaching into Their gut And rearranging the fundamental structure of their Existence? Why is rambling incessantly about the wallpaper So fucking bad When it's just there, mocking its inhabitants with its Vivid color While they are bent over at the waist, grieving something Tragic and Equally unimportant to the big world hunched Over them? Write from the well of your knowledge unless your Knowledge Is the kind of thing that the group decides they just Don't like. And then it's your responsibility to shut up and shove Those words Into neat little boxes so they can be devoured by Consumers Who obviously know best when it comes to the Passive voice And things that are uncapturable.
By Silver Daux11 days ago in Poets
The Lunatic Ball
Don’t hide your weirdness We’re at the lunatic ball: The world, upside-down Author’s Note: I’m on day seven of the fifty-day song/lyric-inspired senryū (as we agreed in the comments of my previous installment) challenge! Time sure does fly by, doesn’t it? This poem is inspired by “A Symptom of Being Human” by Shinedown, which you can listen to below.
By Stephanie Hoogstad11 days ago in Poets
The Reaper’s Hourglass
Inverted hourglass Sand slipping through time until Reaper knocks it down Author’s Note: I’m on day six of the fifty-day song/lyric-inspired haiku (or should it be senryū?) challenge. Today’s poem is inspired by Breathe (2 AM) by Anna Nalick, which you can listen to below.
By Stephanie Hoogstad12 days ago in Poets
