DEAD POETS

they say to write in solid structures
study classic forms and classic writers
but I'm a writer free of form
I don't conform to the classic ways
I am a poet of today, and so I
side step and let the educated mourn them

though I have respect for my elders
I aspire to be better and if
I fail my thoughts are still my own
from the depths of my center
where thoughts spill but words never enter
from the mastered forms of before

I've read the greats like Keats and Yeats
but I breathe in struggle, I don't relate
to their poetic ideals, my misery is real
there are trials in life I can not appeal

greats of English word they served it well
within their time, my anvil to quell
I jot in rhyme I breathe sublime, in this time

for they are done caring
and I, not a thin paring

Author's Note

your either going to hate it or love it...so go ahead, but explain...

Reviews

[Rene Velez]

@ invs: I appreciate the critique, to each his own I say, but does expression and poetry have to be put in a box and stored away, or can it just over flow and become something new...I am only stating poetry has to progress in order for it not to die, it's not very popular these days unless your sitting drivel on stage, stagnant is not what I want for the art of poetry...I did say I respected the greats though...I didn't put them down...

[Larry Dyson]

"know your adversary and keep it closer"..yep don't quote Me on that one...call a rose anything else and it still has certain qualities we all recognize...so days I like the details and some days the rhyming flowing peotry of the bards way of speaking...and you just "said that" well written expressing a modern poet's thinking.. named Rene.

[bob, small b. aka invs]

hate it. explanation: you want to write in a modern style, that's fine. but totally turning your back on the past and its forms simply limits you. these aren't dead forms. they are living challenges for gifted writers. just try to hammer all your feelings and frustrations, your love and hate, into a form that has a predetermined rhythm and rhyme structure. or try to make 17 syllables in 3 lines into something beautiful to contemplate. write a sonnet. a cinquain. i think you'll find that you've been taking the easy way out. you can say it's because you're beyond that, but until you can do it, you haven't reached that point yet.
i'm not saying you're not a decent writer. you show skill in expressing yourself. i just disagree with what you were expressing.

[.]

well said..I agree wholeheartedly that we are the present and that what we write should relate in terms of our understanding..hey Tupac may be seen like shakespeare in 200 yrs time..it is great to read the Greats and see through their eyes - they have left an imprint of life on their work..now so must we..

[.n.]

This is very powerful and eloquent, Rene. You've wrapped up your whole philosophy and style so nicely here. It's true we can't cling to the past because we will stagnate, but I think there is a definite balance between knowing where your art form comes from and making it modern and fresh. This is so well-expressed! This is my favorite poem of yours so far.

[writing mojo]

I agree with you a hundred percent. why put yourself in a box and be constrained by the classic form, lose the meaning into dreaming in fear of being to free ..losing not ground, but the feeling only you know when a thought begins and ends, and i think your words don't need a barricade or wall to feel brick by brick meaning..you are the masonry heart to mind speaking....cemented in phrases only the quick at mind understand ..good stuff

[Tommy]

If you can take anything from the greats, look to their aspiration to be their own...A dream would be to one day have my work read, and have someone say, "Now that's a Hopkins III piece." I hope to be defined only by my own feel to form words... Never conform my friend, I enjoy reading you work because the voice is yours...

Great Write Rene!
RLG,
Tommy

[Kenneth The Poet]

Your inspirations I think come from that world that includes Eminem, Dr. Dre and Grand Master Flash, but I can't be sure. I will say that your style is your own and that is why I read it and why I really respect it. I love poems that muse on writing poetry itself, a meta-poem so to speak. This is a favorite of mine now.

[...]

. albert einstein said "education is what remains after we forget everything we learnt in school" ... josh waitzkin in "the art of learning" talks about learning technique only to let go of it ... a poet like any other artist is a reflection of his times ... and his trials ... yet ultimately poetry lies in the eyes of the reader ... and this ... right here ... in my humble opinion ... is brilliance in poetic expression ... from start to finish ... skillful and sensitive ... so real that it's surreal ...