why no poets?

We cover poetry and verse in school. We learn rhyme and meter, Limericks, Haikus, and endless variations of ‘Roses are Red.’ Most of us lose all interest and appreciation in it soon after. Sure, you have some angst-ridden teens who churn out reams of doggerel. But most of us have their poetry and verse mocked, beaten, or ridiculed out of us fairly early.

Some do carry on with it. Either in writing song lyrics, composing raps, or even beat poetry. These ones at least get shared. Most poetry that people write seems to be kept private. It might be due to the personal nature of the work or, more likely, to avoid the ridicule of the masses. Blogs and such should allow for more of this to be shared.

I’m not a huge poetry fan but I do appreciate a fine turn of phrase. I like comedy and read voraciously. In blogging, I am able to try and string words together in clever ways and have to keep up with trying to express my thoughts in a somewhat-coherent way.

On Canada Day, I saw a clip of ‘We Are More’ from the Olympics opening ceremonies. This is what inspired me to find a transcript and posted it here. I had to add punctuation though. In looking for it, I came across a bunch of Shane Koyczan’s other works on youtube and became entranced again by the spoken word.

I’m not about to run out and start writing a bunch of poetry. I’m too fond of rhyming to do that. But I may post up the occasional verse that I come across from time to time