Rules for Poets
 

Cellarite kisrael (Boston Fireworks IOtD) has posted Rules for Poets on his site.

I think they should be required reading for all you budding Plaths. :p

For example;
#9 - The importance of a private memory doesn't justify art.
Or;
#13 - The world does not need another poem about a bad relationship. Save it for the diary.

Go read the rest. :cool:

"If it hasn't been edited, it is not a poem. It is a draft."

I'm taping that to my office drawer, only I'm replacing "poem" with "song".

I liked "If you use the word 'soul,' you will be shot."

shot thru the soul...hey! that sounds like a good idea for a - oh, wait.

:notworthy:

lol. I have torn up a piece of paper into tiny pieces, so bad was the poem I'd penned on it.

No one has written poems worse than the ones I wrote in HS. No one! :)

Ahem...I beg to differ. I wrote some truly awful shit.

I loved it all, except:
Which is wrong. Just plain wrong.
I have read (and posted here) beautiful sestinas - not my own, I don't have the discipline.
And an insistence that free verse is the only valid form of poetry negates many of the other points. And sadly soured me on the rest of it.

Free verse can be beautiful. But it is deceptively artful, and its very simplicity is what fools many would-be poets into thinking they can write.

There is a huge difference between rhyming doggerel and poetry.
And some of the most talented poets I have read employ verse and/ or specific form to great affect.

Oh we need a thread: your bad teen poems. I have them all! You would laugh and laugh! :lol:

i have none of them unfortunately. Or fortunately, depending how you look at it:P

Yes Bruce, Yes. 9 & 13 seemed to be the core of one of our past members opus.....
I will gladly contribute to the bad teen poetry thread. Can't say mine has improved much since, hence not sharing it here.

Oh noes, calling my bluff. Well, I'll have to find them.

I agree with Sundae about the rhyming one. That one is just wrong.

I wrote a poem about the rules for poets:

Your poem.
It sucks.
Because you used rhymes.
Your poem.
It sucks.
Out my soul. And mind.
Your poem
Reminds me
of my ex
who
was crap at sex
and we spent endless nights
working together
hearts beating as one
writing poems
about the burning sun
we wrote ten a night
and then we’d fight
and now he’s gone.

*Applauds* outstanding! Well done that manc!

Bravo, monster!