deepundergroundpoetry.com
the elements of poetry
"I believe a good subject matter, and a good, flowing rhythm are the two essential elements that make poetry." J-Z
I wonder if old J-Z knows
that if the language used
inside a rhythmed line that flows
unhindered in the way
it runs upon a page
is not itself beguiling, fresh
and full of images and sense
that cause a reader to be swept up in
a new experience
the composition
that the lines are set within
is hardly poetry
no matter how exalted, grand,
its subject’s thought to be.
To wit
God’s grace is like a piece
of haystack cauled with tarmac tops
as ants march pipered in balloons
by women’s underwear
and hallelus from donkey’s thumbs
rise up upon the sterile ground
to dent the hair upon Jill’s jack
alack alack it cries
in strains of hymns alive, fulsome
The subject here
– the likeness of God’s grace-
is quite sublime.
The meter of this composition’s lines
is fine and faultless too.
But as to whether it’s good poetry
the answer is
it isn’t worth a dime.
I wonder if old J-Z knows
that if the language used
inside a rhythmed line that flows
unhindered in the way
it runs upon a page
is not itself beguiling, fresh
and full of images and sense
that cause a reader to be swept up in
a new experience
the composition
that the lines are set within
is hardly poetry
no matter how exalted, grand,
its subject’s thought to be.
To wit
God’s grace is like a piece
of haystack cauled with tarmac tops
as ants march pipered in balloons
by women’s underwear
and hallelus from donkey’s thumbs
rise up upon the sterile ground
to dent the hair upon Jill’s jack
alack alack it cries
in strains of hymns alive, fulsome
The subject here
– the likeness of God’s grace-
is quite sublime.
The meter of this composition’s lines
is fine and faultless too.
But as to whether it’s good poetry
the answer is
it isn’t worth a dime.
Published 30th Apr 2023
Author's Note
This was inspired by J-Z's rather apodictic and oddly worded claim ""I believe a good subject matter, and a good, flowing rhythm are the two essential elements that make poetry."
Cue the (false) charge that nearly all of my submissions are "imitations" of the things he writes. And even if they were, even though they do not contain the grammar gaffes, the solecisms, the bad punctuation, the misuse of words,, the awkward inversions, and the all-tell, no-show style, and the question-begging claims that are characteristic of his submissions, so what?
Cue the (false) charge that nearly all of my submissions are "imitations" of the things he writes. And even if they were, even though they do not contain the grammar gaffes, the solecisms, the bad punctuation, the misuse of words,, the awkward inversions, and the all-tell, no-show style, and the question-begging claims that are characteristic of his submissions, so what?
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