What Is Poetry?

Introduction

Tomorrow I may be reading some of my poetry at an open mic event in Nunsmoor Park which you can see below. If you are a Vocal member who lives in Newcastle please come along.

The only person I really know is my friend Natalie, and it is twenty years since I have performed for an audience, so the nerves are kicking in. So I thought I would evaluate my thoughts on what poetry is. I have written over six hundred poems and published them on Vocal. I know they are good, and the praise I get from my audience provides they are really good, but Vocal seldom acknowledge them, and that does hurt me, but the number of reads I get for them shows me I am doing the right thing.

So What Do I Think Poetry Is?

I see it as a way to emphasise what you are trying to say in some sort of defined format.

The format may be freeform and may take the course of paragraphs rather than lines. Generally when you see a poem you know that it is a poem, rather than a story or an article.

While a book or story has a long form, a poem can have myriad forms.

"I'm A Poet

And I Didn't Know It"

Can be considered a poem, as it is self-contained and it also rhymes.

Then again there are poems that are epic, or long format. The two below fall into that category.

When I started on Vocal I wrote a couple of pieces referencing poetry forms but I have discovered many more since then.

Although I have tried the poetry forms I know about, there are many that I am yet to try, but my normal forms are Sonnet and Villanelle which are both loved by an audience but you seldom see that form in any Vocal Top Story poem, in the Vocal last eight poems only three had any form at all.

Sometimes you do need to go freeform to say what you want to say.

I also try to make my poems visually presentable so that people can enjoy what they see as well as the words that they are reading, but again this is seen by many as frivolous, but I will not change that, because I like a visual aspect and music with the poetry I read where it is appropriate.

Poetry can be anything.

It could be two words, I have written about the concept of a one-word poem, but may that is just too surreal to contemplate.

So Will I Be OK?

It's 15 years since I have performed live and that was always to a partisan audience, many of whom I knew. That was singing in a rock band (which I will be doing again) this is reading poetry to people I probably don't know in a park garden area.

I expect a receptive audience and hope that I can choose some poems which will be good to deliver. I have a choice of over six hundred to choose from, all of which are here:

The performance may be filmed as well, and if it is I will add it to this article.

I am going to do this but hope I don't crash and burn, because if this comes off there may be more to come.

I am sure there are many friends on Vocal who have done this sort of thing, but Nigel Blackwell of Half Man Half Biscuit says if you don't get nervous before a performance then you become blasé and that is not good, and I do agree with him on this.