Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!genrad!decvax!harpo!seismo!uwvax!reid From: reid@uwvax.UUCP Newsgroups: net.poems Subject: Form in Poetry Message-ID: <945@uwvax.UUCP> Date: Thu, 23-Jun-83 03:43:38 EDT Article-I.D.: uwvax.945 Posted: Thu Jun 23 03:43:38 1983 Date-Received: Fri, 24-Jun-83 22:47:30 EDT Lines: 25 Nothing personal, but most of the poetry I have seen here more closely resembles "stream-of-consciousness" writing. It is not poetry, in my opinion, and not very interesting, for another opinion. Open your favorite volume of poetry (usually about 1-1/2" thick) and *try* to find a poem in there with no rhyme scheme, no stanza structure, or no apparent cohesion of some sort. I'll bet you can't find two poems. There is a *good* reason for that. Anything else is only very warily considered poetry. A poem is a dance or words, in a sense, and a pleasant feeling can be found in just reading it aloud, because of the cohesion and alliteration and meter and rhyme and so forth. That is why it is poetry in the first place, and I am willing to argue about that. In any case, again at the risk of offending everybody in this newsgroup, I would rather not read people's diary entries, but some real live poetry. I have submitted maybe two poems of my own writing here, because they take time to write, and are difficult to write. That is why there are so few poets--it is not easy to write poetry. And if you can't write poetry yourself, then dig out your "Golden Age of Poetry" volume, and type in your favorite Long- fellow poem, then sit down with it and look *very* carefully at all the structure that is there that you took for granted all these years.... Glenn Reid ..seismo!uwvax!reid