What even is poetry ? Is it a dead genre from over a century ago ? Or is it whatever comes out when we're given the permission to speak ? Is poetry the place where you're expected to propagandize about your marxist cause ? Does poetry have to have a point ? What's the difference between poetry and a shitpost ? Is it the jagged edges ? Poetry is a shitpost with the sharp edges rounded off ? Is that what poetry is or is it what it has become ? Is poetry about not stirring anything in the reader ? I'm really asking, when I imagine a poet, I have the standard default culturally transmitted view

Which is this

Some sad and/or depressed person making remarks that otherwise wouldn't be remarkable, like a banana taped to the wall of a museum, is that what poetry is ? Is poetry a social construct ? I don't know, all I know was that I should take it seriously, so I'm trying that, see if that poetry's stuff is any fun.

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[–] 5 points 1 year ago (1 child)

Someone should remove this post. This isn’t poetry and is the opposite of the type of content the rest of us came here for.

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  • [–] [S] -1 points 1 year ago

    Here's a corrected version
    I hope this addresses your concerns

    [OC] If Poe Wouldn't Jizz in His Pants, Am I Even a Poet?

    Are you really a poet
    if your words wouldn’t make Poe
    jizz in his pants?
    
    What even is poetry
    a dead genre,
    buried with Whitman,
    cracked spine,
    forgotten rhyme,
    rotting in a library basement
    beside broken revolutions
    and MFA regrets?
    
    Or is it
    whatever spills out
    when someone finally tells you
    you’re allowed to speak?
    
    Is it a soapbox
    for your Marxist cause?
    A protest sign
    with enjambment?
    
    Does poetry
    have to have a point?
    
    What’s the difference
    between poetry
    and a shitpost?
    
    Is it the jagged edges?
    Or the way
    we sand them down
    so the feed won’t choke
    on something sharp?
    
    Maybe poetry
    is a shitpost
    but with the sharp bits
    filed off
    by a workshop full of ghosts.
    
    Is that what it is
    or what it became?
    
    Is poetry now
    about not stirring
    anything at all?
    
    I’m really asking.
    When I imagine a poet,
    I see the standard-issue
    culturally transmitted ghost:
    
    Sad.
    Possibly broke.
    Definitely staring
    out a window
    at nothing in particular.
    
    Someone making statements
    that wouldn't be remarkable
    if not
    for the line breaks.
    
    A banana
    taped to the white wall
    of a museum
    is that poetry?
    
    Is it all
    just a social construct
    in a beret?
    
    I don’t know.
    All I know is
    I was told
    to take this seriously.
    
    So I’m trying.
    
    Seeing
    if poetry's
    any fun.
    
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