Poetry; In or Out?
How do you feel about people who speak in metaphors and colorful imagery? In spoken? No, thank you. However, people who can write some good lines impress me so. Receiving cheesy lines full of imagery in a form of a poem would be nice, too. You may disagree, but I find them romantic. Not everyone can weave words to create a wonderful picture after all. Handwritten letters come in second. Call me an old soul.I’ll take it!
Getting straight to the point is always preferred in communication. It is the most effective and efficient way to convey an idea across an audience. Lyrical and poetic conversation just make people cringe. It’s definitely not everyone’s cup of tea. I may be one of those who still find poems and poetry relevant and yeah, attractive.
I always prefer direct speech, no roaming around the bush in verbal communication and day to day conversations. But those people who know me better, they know that I am crazy about poetry and I still memorize some of my favorite ones. I am crazy about the classic pieces but there are also a lot of less known contemporary writers, even anonymous ones that caught my attention.
My penchant for reading and writing poetry comes from my desire to express myself but prefer not to tell anyone else. It is very therapeutic. When I am frustrated, in distress, angry or even during my happy moments, I sometimes resort to writing. Some compositions I kept but most of them were torn into pieces or burnt. Few times, I write my feelings down especially when I am angry then burn it soon after. Trust me, you’d feel much better soon afterwards.
There are a lot of poems that are memorable and mirrors life and the colorful emotions and thoughts. Reading some of them makes me say, ‘I wish I said that!’. So, who are the poets I favor and my favorite of their pieces? Well,let me give you my top 10 from the classic ones.
- If by Rudyard Kipling.
- Shakespearean sonnets’ Sonnet 18,Sonnet 116 and Sonnet 104
- The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
- The Rhodora By Ralph Waldo Emerson
- When I am Dead My Dearest by Cristina Rosetti
- The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
- Portrait of a Lady by T.S. Elliot
- The Flower that Smiles Today by Percy Bysshe Shelley
- On His Blindness by John Milton
- Daffodils by William Wordsworth
Recently, I like reading Lang Leav and her book ‘Lullabies’ being the last I’ve read in one sitting. Her pieces are short and whimsical, yet so true. Some are also made for fun and yet, they address contemporary truths such as the comedic Harry Baker and his Paper People and When This is Over, a lock down poem.
Some poems in my country even served as stimuli for my people to open their eyes when we were still at the mercy of invaders. Poems of our national hero Jose P.Rizal immortalized the woes and longings of the Filipinos. Many of these masterpieces led to the awakening of patriotism and nationalism.
I salute the people who strive to keep poetry alive especially to the younger generations. It is not unusual to see younger people thinking that it is boring or old. But I commend those who actively participate in activities such as Spoken Word Poetry in the Philippines, an activity that lets people recite their poems, their own compositions most of the time, in front of an audience. Poems don’t only express our emotions and ideas but it also keeps creativity and the language itself alive!
I’ve presented great and legendary poets but let me keep it down a notch by giving you a sample of my work as a frustrated writer. It is only one of my poor compositions that i chose to keep simply because it was difficult for me to do so.I am a work in progress. My nephew, who was in senior high school at that time, asked me to compose to poem using the Math language! So feel free to criticize and I apologize for wasting your time on this.
Life’s Arithmetic by A Frustrated Poet
Life is not a sequence nor set of reciprocals
You don’t always get what you give, so be practical
Chances are infinite, but so are radicals
Prime is not just a number, brave the verticals
Multiply your efforts, divide the credit
Add some fun, subtract the worries
Bring the blame down to zero,
Value the character, not the ego.
Everything can happen in a fraction of a second
Everyday matters, everyone has a function
The product is equivalent on how you reckon
Your limited sphere; broaden your horizon.
Learn from experience, past and present
Some people stay, some may be absent
Your worlds are parallel, sometimes it’s tangent
Your paths may cross but not a hundred percent.
We are infinitesimal in the immense universe,
Yet things correlate no matter how diverse,
In geometric planes, we ourselves immerse
Exponential possibilities God has dispersed
