November 22, 2009

I don't write poetry

This is NOT a rhyme,
not to a sing-song voice that says "Looooove meeeeee!"
because I TELL my story.

NO

Not an artificial "I'm too sad to cope, so I'll spit my words out by struggling to say what I mean to say by not saying exactly what I mean by meaning what I say only as long as I'm saying it"...

NO

Not a torn-out "I live in the ghetto and got abused by my girlfriend too many times, too many bullets in the head, so many times that I can't believe I didn't realize sooner" I've heard so many times I can't believe I'm still listening

NO

My life is not a beat from the street, not a sad expose of how I turned my life around, not the insanity of being a loner, unwanted, afraid, manhandled, passionate, creative--

All I am saying is

I don't write poetry

I've never seen the sun in the stars or the stars in the moon or the moon in your hair--but I CAN say it's been dyed too many times. So many, in fact, that it resembles the crater-strewn dried out surface of an uninhabitable rock.

My story cannot be stretched out, blown up, used to float through the layers of the atmosphere, layers of belief, religion, living, dying, moral ethics, logical physics, wildly played out fantasies of a person who knows who they are already because

I don't know who I am yet.

Am I a Catholic-Jew-woman-person-lover-hater-fighter-follower-believer-skeptic-critic-dancer-singer-artist--

I can at least be that.

But a poet...that's been overplayed too many times.
I hear "Poetry" and I say,
"Shit! Now this class is going to take ten times as long and make one-tenth the amount a' sense!"
Rhymes, riddles, metaphors, between the lines, between the sheets, love, passion, understanding, hating, reasoning, the image of an image beyond an image behind an image of the man you sat down with on the bench while you were listening to your iPod and he was feeding the birds bread out of a paper bag--

God All Mighty have mercy on our souls!

Because that's not my gig dawg. Thas not how I roll.

So where do I belong, if it's not with the poets?

Am I even a person?

Unable to express what I believe, my personality, my insanity, the reason for my existence, my persistence through life despite the constant crying of WHY WHY WHY WHY am I still alive? Dragging my feet through the marshes of humanity, the surrealism of reality, eternity of suffering through a poetry class without ending, a destination without a beginning, meaning in only what we mean, not what we say, constantly playing behind the covers of a lovers' bed with his (or her's) ex, only to find out later that your lover was also playing the same game, and you feel cheated, defeated, lied to, you're ready to take your own life with the blade of Juliet, but then you realize something!

Your fingers grip the pen...shaking...afraid for eons about what you want to say...finally, you can say what you mean.

Waste Land great Byzantium okay Arcadia intriguing Rent I like the idea Eternity Program in the making Sesame Street good for kids What the FUCK is up with South Park?

Everyone around me everywhere is playing off these misguided spurts of idiocy and framing them as masterpieces--am I the only one who doesn't get it--

AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO DOESN'T UNDERSTAND?!

Left outside of a crowd born to take the world, live it, love it, and die in a rose-scented coffin with a violin playing soft sultry music in the background to the beat of 'I Kissed a Girl' and later 'See You Again'--

NO

I don't want to write poetry. I want to write history.

4 comments:

  1. nice blog. I have a political blog you might like.

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  2. I really enjoy your writing. You should do it more :)

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  3. Aw thanks! I will try to write more! Having two writing classes and Japanese is taking it's toll on me, but I plan on continuing this blog even after class is finished, I really like it.

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  4. P.S. This poem is after watching some poetry slams online, and being inspired, yadda yadda. The title explains everything... I don't like writing poetry. And it's not supposed to incite anger from all those poets out there, but to draw a connection between poetry and history, an importance that SOME "poets" seem to forget. People who take poetry class just to express what they feel are very cliche, and don't see the greater picture. But, for someone who doesn't like writing poetry, i may be overstepping my boundaries. It is what it is, and I hope I don't get angry comments cuz of it *laugh*

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