We have to move within our confines, even though it's intolerable.

Any

poem

written

without 

people

in it,

is

a 

RANT!

Reviews

[barleygirl]

As always, your thought processes are stunning & push us onward to evolve as we try to portray life in words. I feel many rants these days read like the author considers those being slammed as being NON-PEOPLE. Those with different viewpoints are so thoroughly dissed in today's rants, it's like these diatribes contain no people. The "other side" might as well be dogshit, the way people address people who don't agree. I wonder how this people-obliterating trend became so deeply entrenched these past 4 years? (((HUGS))) Fondly, Margie

[h d e rushin]

Poetry, I believe, is still evolving. Not as humans have evolved but as a concept or imaginable illustration or better yet, the horsepower of our human intentions. In other words, it's far closer to fuel than ash; closer still to the sun than to Venus and then closer to our imagined heaven than our un-imagined hell. But I also believe that poetry is one of the final true acts of democracy. We all have a part to play in it's discussion and thus are equally rewarded with it's extravagances. But poetry (the art form) is the naming of things. An accumulation of dissolved eluviation's. But there has to be some symbols that direct us to, and past our unproven ignorance. People is what makes poetry plausible. That's why every poem is, at heart, a love poem in spite of it's fanciful imaginariness. You said it best.."it's a trend". Nothing less. Love dana.

[barleygirl]

Thanks for sharing a stimulating peek into your amazing mind!

[Quietstorm]

Nice write, interesting thought. Keep writing and stay inspired 😊

[h d e rushin]

thank you love and happy new year to you....dana

[Quietstorm]

It's well deserving luv😊Happy New years to you as well

[Arundass TP]

What about poems without people, there is someones perception behind it. so nothing is void of thought.

[h d e rushin]

thanks love....dana

[Chris Shaw]

Because someone has a different opinion, that doesn't make them right or wrong. It just means that they have a different way of looking at things. Sadly everything is seen these days through right or wrong. Polarised views. That's where you took me Dana. Not sure that's what you intended, but it can make life quite difficult at times.

Chris

[Robert Trakofler]

upon reading miss Danas latest poem the slightly perplexed bunny suddenly came to an understanding... oh s**t! I do have a tendency to rant don't I? LOL I Love it Dana I love it!

[h d e rushin]

"Oh no! "Rant" to a poem is the petal, not the ovule or the sepal , nor the anther. But writing poems is such an out of body experience, that we assume , perhaps like a dahlia assumes, that we can see the forces that made it beautiful. So we become consumed with the static notion(s) of the sound of our own voices, that eventually the richness of the poems worth is drowned out by out own hubris...In other words, what color are the people in your poems ? /you're probably more advanced than most of the people who write here, but can you ever write about a poem where really tall people spoke to you, or whether you love them or not, and if you say you love them, can you stand seeing them in your neighborhood not just in your poems. You never rant. You don't have to because your poetic people naturally appear, magically say things to you; walk with you hand in hand.
This poem got a lot of feed back. I didn't mean it as an insult to anyone's style or a criticism to anyone's muse...But let's be clear....My muse , like my angels, look just like me.....thanks love for your insights....dana

[Robert Trakofler]

well that explains just why, your poems are always so beautiful! You have an uncanny knack for taking even the most wretched of things and painting it beautiful:/ not in the "look at the pretty birdie" way but the "and I'm still standing" way. Your poetic voice is among my favorites here:) Truly I wasn't the slightest bit offended at all:)

[Zeitgeist Manifesto]

Right on. Write on. Express yourself. The discounted experiences writers share with the world ...through the reactions of critics are precisely why the pieces exist in the first place. There is something wrong when you look at a different perspective that can help you grow...as an indictment.

[h d e rushin]

I don't know when music began, but somewhere in Africa before the dispersal of humans around the planet perhaps. But it took until Romanticism (Beethoven) before it could be named. Before it could be about triumph, or joy, or awakening, or even love. Even the earliest poet Virgil as rich as he was, wrote the "Aeneid" to exemplify Rome's divine destiny. The point i'm making is that if we remove people from the investigation (which poetry strives to inquire, it is to turn sentiment into trespass; affection into information. But just as Ted Kniffen has pointed out, this very poem is itself a rant. An invocation, a petition for authority or justification. No indictment intended or purposed... Just me thinking out loud....that's all.

[Zeitgeist Manifesto]

Never intended to sound like I thought this poem was an indictment. I saw it as a different perspective that could be learned from. Sometimes people don't benefit from a chance to learn because for some reason it offends them as If they are being indicted. I never saw any intent to be hurtful. No probs here.

[Ted Kniffen]

Rant on Dana. There are no people ... only ideas ... and if my idea doesn't coincide with the opposite thinking, then, obviously I am wrong.
Too bad we cannot come to grips with thinking that only our ideas are the correct ones. If that really was the case, then we should all hide in our basements where we're safe from each other.
This issue is not just a product of the past 4 years, as much as we'd like to "Dump on Trump", it has gone on, in one form or another, since Time immemorial.
Good write.
Only one day of this tripe left.
Take care ... be safe.

[h d e rushin]

Men are made of flesh Ted. That's not intuitionism nor doctrine. We don't have to agree on the fundamental principle as to whether that's right or wrong. It is neither. When you write a poem you agree with Virgil's relationship with "his" variables of space and expression. Just like if you decide to pick up a sax tomorrow morning, you cannot distance yourself from Charlie Parker no matter how many scales you practice or for how long.
ps: i've been hiding in my basement since April. You never know what's going to happen......love dana.

[redzone]

hmmm, do they have to be real people or just fictional characters??? can a mushroom become a people if its a poem written about mushroom barley soup?? I mean I don't want to 'rant' about soup, nope I love soup.... how about a poem about cats??? are cats people??? perhaps when you give cats a name they become a person... I had a cat named Tom, but he scratched up my sofa and I wanted to rant.... yes I wrote a poem about him, a rant poem.... Dana, I am having fun with your poem, sorry.... I hope you know that this means I am enjoying it a lot...

one other thing your words brought to mind is that while we are social creatures, our culture has driven us into a more atomized society.... and the pandemic even more so.... but are we as isolated as they say we are??? if we follow medical guidelines, wash hands often, carry and use hand sanitizers, wear masks, and practice social distancing in larger crowds, limit the size of crowds, we are not stuck in our homes all by ourselves with only computers and tvs and family members.... and what many do not get, is that the virus is real, its deadly and if we practice these safety measures we can slow the spread down and if we had been doing this from the beginning we would be in much better shape today... but a fascist government and deniers have made all this worse.... talk about RANTS, as of 10:30 am today, over 9 million cases in the USA with over 230,000 deaths!!! What the f**k????

so there is my rant....

[h d e rushin]

so good to hear your voice. It is always silver and gold.
When Rap music first came on the scene it was just dance music. Then people realized that it could also be message music, then hate music, then murder music which it is now. But in the late 90's, caught between dance and message, rappers were just standing in open fields and hollering. The inference you suggested, was my intent exactly. Cat poems can only be "cat" poems if you name them so. The device or the object "Tom" was intentional not prudence, devotion, romance or happenstance. "Rant" then is the subset of pedant and the arbitrary of brotherly love. But I grew up in the 70's where every poem was a sort of rant, especially every poem from a black poet. But that was (looking back) aesthetic searching and inferential reasoning, not just ranting for the sake of making a point (Ethridge Knight's "Feeling fucked up" is, after all, a love poem). I, like you, have to let off steam once and a while. Sometimes I squeeze my pillow so hard, that if it was a lover, all the blood in their body would rush out. Love dana.

[emmajoy]

Should I laugh, smile, applaud or rant with you, dana? As always yours is such a vocal pen that inevitably says what others think.. thank you.

[h d e rushin]

i'm waiting for your/our yearly Christmas Collaboration where no one has any room at all for ranting. Just sound and warmth and inspiration to eachother....love dana

[emmajoy]

We're hoping to organise things very soon. Thank you so much for mentioning the collaboration. The UK is due a month's lock.down within hours. How much warmth and inspiration we share amongst selves and others far and wide might show how we put Humankind above false promises and perverted logic!

[jacob erin-cilberto]

life is a rant these days, dana.
I am getting so tired of this people-less world....
I want socialness again...

but I know it is probably far off...

by the by, I really like your governor....she is sharp....and has been so disrespected....I hate that.
I want to slam our president's face for his flippant comments about her.
j.

[h d e rushin]

we need a hug, we Americans. Too much happened to us this year. It's like watching WWE on Saturday mornings in the 80's when Jimmy "the fly" Snuka would fly off of the turn buckle and plant us face down on the mat, then hold our leg up as the ref counted us out. Only this time the ref never stops counting.....thanks brother...dana

[jacob erin-cilberto]

And I go back to Argentina Zooma, and Davey Hill doing those flying leaps on the Crusher or Killer Kowalski....ha ha...
damn those days were precious...
and you are so right....we need a damn hug.