GRANNY SMITH OR COSMIC CRISP

I have always resented formal rules in

literary circles, the laws of sonnetry, haiku,

or villanelle; tripwires set across the path

and flow of meaning. Clever, they are, those

Pharisees and Sadducees with long noses

and soulless pince nez arrogance, full of

fancy names for complicated nonsense.

I’ve read your poem and ask myself, “what

do I see now, I did not see before?” Sometimes,

all I need to get my juices flowing is a spritely

turn of phrase I wish I’d done myself, “the blue

of dark” is one I stole, and maybe will again

when the need arises.

There are poems whose very words are so

electric you need someone to shout “CLEAR!”

before you read them... A thing that never

happens in the elite, right angled world of

Anapestic Pentameter’s greeting cards...

Stop!

Academia with the hard hearts of squeezed

sphincters always at home with arcanity.

I imagine they prefer plastic flowers for their

table because they always stay the same while

real ones require water and food.

Real words need be scattered and sown like wheat

in a paper garden for a harvest of something

new, because the doctrine of conformity is

a bitter apple and the original sin in any garden

of the arts.

Reviews

[Lorry]

I went through a phase of only writing haiku or senryu and in the end had almost 400 of them. What a waste of time that was because not one of them was better than the first one I wrote....

Walking on water
I felt like the chosen one
until it melted!

So thats a few years of my life I'll never get back.
I was almost tempted to start on villanelle, but the word itself conjures images that id need a pencil thin moustache that curled up at the ends and I cant be bothered with all that preening (Think of Dick Dastardly and you'll see what i mean)
Then i discovered a list of all the types of poetry and couldn't believe it was over 300! I think there was some weird game played by some over competitive poets back in the day, where they just wrote something and claimed it a new type of poetry.
Its more honest if you think there's only two types...good and very bad.
I prefer prose because if it has any rules I didn't get the memo, but no doubt I've been doing it wrong all these years and I should have been wearing sandpaper hotpants while writing with a quill that id stab into a Squid, but what are you meant to do with all the leftover Squid. I mean my writes are usually short and have you tried keeping a Squid alive while wearing sandpaper hotpants? I rest my case! 😃

[Vol]

I wish I could write short poems... Maybe I don't trust my readers to figure it out so I have to keep adding clues... maybe not. After the first line, it's out of my hands, anyway...I's sort of like dancing when you don't know how, just lose yourself to stand there and wiggle a little to the rhythm, and pick up a foot once in a while. Basllroom dance... Ain't nobody got time for that... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waEC-8GFTP4

[Lorry]

Ah, you seem to have stumbled on my secret of being constantly annoyed by hipster Barnstaple and their complex waxed beards. Everyone can understand it though, so im only passing on my indignation to them to share the mild annoyance around! 😃
I just fihure you always need a hook and if that hook can go through their cheek and drag them around looking ridiculous, then all the better.
Sometimes I think I must come up with a new one, but never enough to stop pointing out how ridiculous they look, but not enough to actually do it, when they make such an effort in looking like a 16th century chimney sweep, with their overly priced "vintage" get ups.
I've really gotta start telling politicians what i think of them... instead of just punching them in the face! 😃

[Vol]

Nah... they enjoy a good punch in the face...I have always thought a hammer does the job...

[Lorry]

Even spellcheck hates baristas because it keeps changing the word to Barnstaple, which is a place in England. I bet a lot of hot lawyers and politicians in Barnstaple get punched for being mistaken for hipster baristas, and vice versa! 😃

[Vol]

Lawyers? Speakers with forked tongues. they deserve what they get for six hundred bucks an hour...read moreLawyers? Speakers with forked tongues. they deserve what they get for six hundred bucks an hour...

[Lorry]

Yeah. And for that price you could pay someone to truly f**k you! 😃

[ETERNITY]

The "tripwire" attracted me! lol
You write so flowingly even when the write becomes deep and complicated (to me)
You never criticize but critique is something you are excellent at.
Even your discernment is poetry.
sphincters got me laughing

[Vol]

AHA! The Mastermind... your thumbnail is the you I believe in! Thank you for your comments and review... I did not deliberately look for or build my writing voice, but I don't know how else to play with my words, a kind of foreplay before the pen comes to wipe its nib on a clean sheet...
Vol

[ETERNITY]

Exactly! You're amazing!