Medium Specificity

    Poetry Is

Poetry is the unsung song
The story untold
It is the beat and the rhythm and the current
Pulling you along

Poetry is chaos abound
Or order pristine
Containing rhyme and rhythm and flowing stanzas
Or thoughts jotted down

Poetry is our feelings read
Each word with meaning
Focus on the words rather than person or story
Sounds thoughtfully said

Poetry is written with care
So much more than words
It is the meaning and the feeling and the flow
That poets transcribe


    After watching a good movie, reading a good book, or seeing incredible art, the first things that often jump into my head are, “Wow! That was incredible! Very well done. How did they do that?” It is natural when I am astonished to wonder how such a thing came to be, and if I could do such a thing. I want to learn more about it. In many cases, after watching a movie, I find that I enjoy the “making of” features of the film even more fascinating and entertaining than the main feature. I tried to create my poem with the same feeling and explanatory elements that I have enjoyed in other media sources. I integrated the poetic elements of rhyme, rhythm, flow, and stanzas not only into the structure of the poem, but in the subject of the poem. It describes itself.

    Poetry has a lot of the same elements as musical lyrics, but I noted that in the poem and described a difference between the two. “Poems are songs unsung.” Poetry has a flow and almost a beat to it, but poems are not written to be sung. They can have rhythm and flowing lines, as I displayed in Poetry Is, but I mention how they can have no rhyme or rhythm at all. Literally. They can be chaotic and unorganized. Larry Eiger’s poem #1201 is a great example of this. This poem, like so many of Eiger’s work, is made of one, seemingly unrelated, word per line. It speaks of the flow of ideas of a poem going onto a page.

The words or sentences can have seemingly no connection, but they always are connected through meaning.

    All poems are written with meaning and feeling. They convey emotions just as much, if not more so, than they convey stories or scenarios. Just as McCloud tried to teach what comics are, and why they are important, through his comics, I tried to enlighten others in a similar fashion with a poem. My poem tries to teach this as it invites the reader to focus on the words, but even more, on the meaning and feeling of each word. What does the poet want you to feel? That is what is truly important and that is what my entire poem, Poetry Is, is trying to teach the reader about poetry.