new-school ee cummings

Oh what an age for poetry -

what wise words these kids spit out.

Back up, Gwendolyn,

we don’t need Bob Dylan,

when we have artists like

Ke$ha and T-Pain.

Let’s pay tribute to Miley Cyrus,

that “chick rockin’ kicks,”

or we could “Crank Dat Soulja Boy” -

oh what artistry.

The new-school ee cummings,

defying English - only one step up!

There needs to be no thought anymore!

Just write about vodka and money

and casual sex in the club!

Artists take the thought out of art,

I guess we have to dumb it down.

So rest in peace poetry,

long live the auto-tune generation,

and don’t forget to crank dat -

will anyone miss cummings?

Reviews

[Mark]

What a joy it is to see one of such tender years bemoaning the tragic turn our once-beautiful language has taken/is taking. Even in the corporate world, the people who compose the documents ostensibly for training do not know when to use "your" vs. "you're"; when "to", when "two", and when "too". It's sad that capitalization and punctuation, which add so much to the reading of a piece, seem to have gone the way of the Dodo. cummings, of course, omitted all of his intentionally, not to save characters in his Tweets, and so his pieces, esteemed though he is, and fun though they can be, rarely stick with me longer than the last syllable--they are fun, but insubstantial. I will ever be a practitioner of the Olde Artes: Spelling, Syntax, Meter--total Alchemy, real ho-hum, but it is the very essence of what makes a writer a Writer, rather than a Tweetist.
(P.S.: You ought probably omit the capitals and periods from "E. E. Cummings" in your title--he would have used neither!)

[Rosalyn Marie]

I love this poem. Its so true how pop culture like just doesn't really care anymore and music is just about partying and stuff. Most musicians are so computer generated now and no one cares about lyrics. I love The Beatles and similar artists because the lyrics have meaning and stuff, unlike most songs today. Anyway I'm rambling... Great poem :)