He Writes Poetry

Poetry is a strange beast.

99% of the populace have no exposure to it, by choice or by circumstance. Of those who do, 95% hate it.

Yet time and time again, I hear people say "He writes poetry" when they are trying to pass somebody off as sensitive or intelligent. In the most bizarre of circumstances.

The most recent of which was a discussion I heard on Golic and Wingo. Sports talk radio. Talking about the Myles Garrett/Mason Rudolph stupidity.

One of the commentators actually said about Garrett "He writes poetry". He was not defending the guy - they trashed him pretty good. He was trying to make the point that Garrett is a different sort of cat, a guy who thinks differently, and who knows how someone like that will react in any given situation. He writes poetry.

Poetry runs the gamut from trash to juvenile vulgarity to exquisite expression. I read a lot of poetry but, admittedly, in spurts. I read a lot for a while then step away from it for a while. Typically a long while.

Also, admittedly, I am not the guy to be objective about any discussion about the merits of poetry. I worship words. Sidebar: I wish speech could be outlawed. Then we would all be forced to communicate in writing. Which eliminates interruptions. I despise people who interrupt when I am talking. I want to rip out their tongue and staple it to their forehead.

More to the point, I worship concepts concisely stated. Song lyrics. Poetry. No meandering, no overflow, no excess words. Thoughts expressed in a direct (or creatively indirect) way so powerful they knock me on my ass.

That's what I love about poetry.

But poetry is like an exotic animal. Something you know little about, something you rarely, if ever, experience. So it becomes mystical and magical and subject to all kinds of subjective erroneous opinions.

Most of the time the people who say "He writes poetry" don't know a fucking thing about poetry. They probably hate it, if they have any opinion at all. But they say that, and wrapped up in those words are all kinds of assumptions about intelligence, creativity, sensitivity and god knows what else.

If you put Bukowski's writings in front of them and that of William Butler Yeats and asked "Which of these guys writes poetry?", most people would choose Yeats and laugh at Bukowski.

They would be wrong. Poetry is unlimited. It covers all topics, includes many different styles and is written by humans so diverse they cover the entire spectrum of human existence. (See William Shakespeare vs Gregory Corso).

My meandering point is that the expression "He writes poetry" is meaningless and usually rolls off the tongues of the uninformed.

I write poetry, for Christ sake. It sucks.

But it feels good.