A couple of times a week, I take someone’s comment and write an in-depth response. This is one of them.

I looked at your poem –

https://medium.com/@johnwelford15?p=3b2474750adc

John, the unique thing about poetry is not that it makes people think. That prose does as well. In fact, in general, for a very long time now, prose is a far better tool for making people think. I’ve been known for it for a lifetime. You can read these reviews – had them for the full 60 years I’ve been published.

http://bestebookstories.blogspot.com/2012/09/flattering-words.html

So, the exceptional thing about poetry is not that it makes people feel and think. The exceptional think is the musical cadence. In fact, to be perfectly honest, I use that same musical cadence in my writing, although it is very subtle.

I admit you are correct when you say I’m dismissive of free verse. I have no idea why anyone would like it or admire it. It all went over my head when I was at school, and all these years later, it still does. I just think that people who have been educated in a system whereby certain writers and styles have been promoted, it’s inevitable that many people will actually think that’s true.

I’m curious as to why you think that because you have read an analyzed a huge amount of poetry that it gives you any authority. What makes you think that I haven’t read a huge amount of poetry. Surely the cadence in my writing must tell you something.

Let me draw you an analogy here. There are 100 women out for a walk. One woman stands out. She is stunning. Everyone notices that she is beautiful. Along comes a man and claims that because he has a lot of experience spotting beautiful women, he is qualified to say that she is beautiful. 😊 The fact is that everybody else noticed that she was beautiful as well. When writing or a poem is good, everybody notices.

The truth is, if people have to have a poem explained to them, it has already failed.

I’m interested in what you say about structure. I take it that your poem, for which I provided a link, has structure. I would like to know where that is. Can you break it down for me? I see a clever message, but that same message would be infinitely improved by writing it in prose. And that’s the problem.

Most people today dislike poetry. Just read through the comments on my piece. Notice that the only people who disagree with what I wrote are people who have studied poetry or are writing poetry themselves. That, I would consider, to be a biased opinion. I’m more inclined to believe those that notice instantly whether something is outstanding.

They all dislike it for the same reason. There’s nothing that separates it from prose. And whereas good prose can be understood instantly, poems, these days, you somehow need to sit and puzzle about. I have no idea why anyone would sit and puzzle about the meaning of something. It doesn’t win one any brownie points. And far better wisdom is found in books.

If I look at older poetry, I don’t’ think it was subtle at all. ‘To Althea, from Prison’ flits into my mind as does Tennyson’s Ulysses. The words meant exactly what they said. There was no difficulty in understanding what they said. It was said outright. In fact, I would go as far as to say that there are too many supposed poets trying to make their words subtle so that people can puzzle what they mean and spend some time thinking about them.

A good writer rips emotions from his readers. And the better writer he is, the more that happens. That’s why bestsellers totally outdo literary fiction. Literary fiction, which is supposed to present the ‘human condition’ fails dismally because it’s so focused on the human condition that it misses the story. People go for story.

Well, my piece is at an end.

I’d be interested in learning about the structure of you poem with the clever message.