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WAR OF WORDS

Some people write in perfect rhyme
with almost perfect flow
and they spend a lot of time
writing poems in old style, you know

....Then others write what's called free verse
....They concentrate on message
....and being brief, choosing each word
....to express exactly what they feel

Some say that rhyming is passé'
something to be out grown
hardly to be read today
discarded like a meatless bone.

....Free verse often when read
....is thought to be just mere chopped prose
....written by those who can not do better
....hardly recalled beyond being read.

Should we so quickly dismiss Frost
and those who labor writing like him
in a style that's almost lost
in a past that now seems dim?

....Is it that we should not be free
....to write without concern for rhyme
....but painting with just thoughts for color
....is this just a fad?

Why not just read with open mind
....and when either style is written well
to beauty of both styles not be blind
....and recognize hard work when read?

Don't dismiss a thing of beauty
.just because it's not your cup of tea
..and read as if it's just a duty
....for all of it is poetry

Style / type: 
Free verse
Review Request (Intensity): 
I want the raw truth, feel free to knock me on my back
Last few words: 
I see the free verse/ classic debate has again reared its head
Editing stage: 

Comments

what ever you do, do it with style

each form is like a genre of music
those that don't like a particular genre, don't care if it's done well or not
don't try to force feed it to dissenters. taste is not an accountable thing

as George H.W. Bush said: I don't like broccoli, and I'm not going to eat it
How can anyone argue with that!

your poem, is cool
but, I sometimes DO feel I'm reading something out of "duty" when reading a style that I really can't relate to.
It's a terrible way to read anything
In all honesty, what good does that do?...I read it , I don't like it, it's not my cup of tea, but....It's GOOD?
I can't help feeling the way I do, and when I feel that sense of "Duty",
I just stop reading

nothing to start a war over, or even a tiny little skirmish

...and never the twain shall meet....

Al

Yeah old George was right lol. But if one doesn't like a style just skip over it. Don't go around condemning it which some people do.........appreciate your dropping by......stan

author comment

Just a note: Frost also wrote in free verse. However the immortal one is "The Road Not Taken".

https://www.poetrysoup.com/famous/poems/best/robert_frost

And well written free verse is as lovely as well written classic....maybe not as easy to remember though but that's not that important. "two roads diverged in a yellow wood......" a great poem with a good message about choices made. Always good to see you show up..........stan

author comment

In the ensuing years, the world has become a much darker place. Let not the darkness extend to the essence of poetry, however it's written, whoever writes it.

Let us all life one another with the truth of our art alone.

Cheers!

I wonder if it's just my getting older which has made it look like the world is going to hell.......stan

author comment

This is a great poem
To try and gently tell people
to have an open mind!
I,for one, don't have the incline
To write preodrdaned structure
Only what sits well in my mind
But I listen to what neo's all say
That keeps me learning
And I'll attach it in my own way

And Stan, we're all getting older
And the glasses are
not so rosy
But getting older, we can get bolder
And the world will sort itself out
And Hell, Hell might be cosy!

I kinda doubt hell would be very cozy lol. And I'm pleased you caught this as being a poem of tolerance for poetic forms. Thanks for the visit.........stan

author comment

Is when this debate began. Today the museum has paintings done in hyper realism with a single haired brush, and around the corner is a canvas where someone threw paint at it with a broom...
same with poetry. Today, If it "feels like a poem", it is a poem. It's up the the visitor to choose what type they like, and they will find tons of it- be it rap, slam, free, rhymed, limericked, whatever.
People found Andrew Dice Clay's vulgar porno poems very funny, the guy made a fortune...

Ultimately I try to say "it's all great". But often what I really mean to say is the stuff I like is a little "greater" than some of the stuff you like. But if civility is possible among our rather decrepit history of non tolerance, it must start with art!

Eumolpus
I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing
than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance
ee cummings

has their preference and that includes me. But that doesn't mean that all else is worthless

author comment

Hi Scribs - what an excellent summary and display of poetry's combinations.

Sadly in my opinion, universities all over the world have chosen to embrace the poetry that is far easier to produce, and subsequently more appreciated than that of previously written works.

Fortunately advertising, music and marketing are still trading well using the fundamentals of old school rhyming poetry to assist then in their works of keeping easy to remember messages under the accepting noses of regular folk.

That said, I firmly believe that there is room for both in this world.

Enough deep stuff for one evening - Great write Scrib I really enjoyed it for all the right reasons.

Best, Dennis

Thanks for the kind words. I'm saddened to say that I agree that the college ivory tower types mostly think traditional poetry is passé'. I speak from experience. I've entered traditional poetry in a county wide contest for 3 years running, in all three years the winner as well as runners up were all free verse. Each year the contest was judged by a university professor in literature. And this is Not sour grapes just observation that it seems peculiar that out of all entries and with 3 awards per year over a 3 year period not a single traditional poem even placed. Sigh, good thing I write for fun lol......stan

author comment
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