For those of you who celebrate Christmas, I hope you had a good one.
For those of you who don’t, I hope you had a nice day too.
Santa Claus is my God and so this time of year is typically about celebrating by having a week or two off work with family, followed by lashings of indulgent self-reflection brought on by cabin fever and excessive red wine consumption.
You lucky people get to share the cabin fever bit with me, for I am still
in its midst.
I believe that it’s good for the soul to have a bit of an end of the year rant purge.
Please indulge me in this, for I am actually scratching as I type.
Here goes:
Keeping it light, this will go down as the year that I finally admitted to myself how much I despise poetry (both writing, reading and the appreciation thereof); and also the year I got quietly annoyed about the various novelty bottom wiping books under our Christmas tree.
I mean, has anyone actually read “the facebook diet – a diet for social media addicts” or “102 things that grumpy old men say at Christmas?”
What about “101 reasons why dogs are better than cats?”
Or “fifty reasons why women rule?”
Awful.
I CANNOT BEAR these books.
Zero thought or imagination goes into buying them.
I have a dusty thigh-high stack at home, non of which I have even opened the front cover of.
Let’s not even mention the poor trees.
I would rather have no gift that one of these bad boys.
Go and buy a proper book people.
Or just keep your money.
I hereby declare these books banned from my Kingdom.
Surely that’s at least “eight reasons why you should never waste your money on a novelty book.”
Poetry.
I have tried to get into the “zone” over the years, I truly have, but seeing as time on this planet is short and most poetry is excruciatingly bad, I am resolved in trying to avoid it from now on.
I realise that some of you love it (what’s wrong with you?!?) but I’m afraid it just makes my eyes glaze over.
Forgive me for the sweeping generalisation.
Yup. I hate it.
But before you come back and accuse me of dissing the merits of song lyrics, rappers etc etc, I’m not talking about that, it’s the more ethereal stuff that makes me scream.
I read the comments people leave for the poets, scratch my head and leave feeling dumb.
Do people really dig it?
The basic childhood lesson is that just because people say something is amazing you shouldn’t just go with it to become a part of the flock.
As an adult, it’s easy to forget this in favour of thinking being horribly pretentious carries weightier status in life.
How people have the energy to get on the same planet as some of the submissions and then have the reserves to meaningfully comment, I have no idea.
I just don’t get it.
Other than that, the Turkey was very nice and I stuck to my one mince pie a year rule.
We all need to vent sometimes and so if there is something bugging you at the moment, feel free to offload here. I’m fair game for counter on any of the above. I would love someone to change my mind!
Glasgowdragonfly's Blog 
As Robert Burns rolls over, lol. Poetry’s perhaps an acquired taste. Much like food, not every poet/poem may be palatable. Leonard Cohen said, “Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.” For myself it can be very mood dependent, much like how you would look at your child that’s bugging you when you’re cooking as an aggravation, whereas later on when looking at them lovingly while sleeping they look like little angels. Thus, a poem can seem good or bad. I tend to favor the Romantics from that Industrial era when people started moving from farms to the city and started revolting against the social norms of the aristocrats. Poetry is just another way of painting emotions and images with words. Your writing does the same very well so you’ve no need to like a different form. The one reason I give for why you should like poetry is simply because… you are the prose that puts the bloom on the rose. ⭐
As far as rants go I do wish people would stop eating because there seems to be a barrage of before and after diet advertisements that are really annoying.
Happy Cabin Fever / 2015! 🙂
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Hi Maverick!
Rabbie B will haunt me for dissing his craft for sure! I am attending a gala dinner later in January to celebrate Burns night (a Scottish excuse to booze under the guise of culture & tradition) and so staying atuned during the programme of poems will be heavy going for me if history relates.
I guess I also find poetry in a popular genre sense somewhat derivative (Burns being a perfect example here); that is to say – I read it, scratch my head and then hit the appended commentary for a thourough interpretation of what academics have decided the sublimminal meaning is. Without this I feel lost. I suppose the idea is that the words can mean anything you want them to but I don’t like to feel adrift when reading, which, I guess, is why I prefer non-poetic fictional prose.
Oh, lo! A simple soul! 😉
I agree with your suggestion that mood probably plays a part in my enthusiasm for sticking with it on any given day though.
There is one poem I love. Its a little quirky and heavy on the British cultural references but I heart the simple sentiment. It’s called “I rely on you” by Hovis Presley.
Happy Hogmanay and see you in the new year!! 🍷
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I think English literature anthology exam preparations are enough to put off budding poetry readers, they certainly put paid to my early enjoyment as I never seemed to get the same analysis as everyone else 😳. However, I have begun to enjoy the poetry blogs and books I read as an adult, I started to research to help with my course and lyric writing and as long as I can have my own understanding and spin on them without someone constantly telling me I’m not getting it I’m fine.
Best wishes
Charlotte
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Hi Charlotte! Wow, yes – heavy going I’m sure!! I agree with you re different interpretations. It can be frustrating to spend time analysing only to be told you are down the wrong rabbit hole! I often think poets must spin in their graves at the sight of modern analysis of their deep dark (and ultimately unverified) thoughts! All the best for 2015! x
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I am a fan of poetry, but not all poetry. There really are some poems that I don’t understand, and some types of poetry that I do not like. Most of my favorite poets are dead. I used to post my poetry on my blog, but I stopped. My therapist read some of it; liked it; and she said I should try to get published. Most of my poetry is concrete; meaning you don’t have to guess at its meaning. I have two poems that will be published in an Anthology of local poets, if the Anthology actually gets published. There are a couple of good poetry blogs, but some aren’t worth reading. Having said that, poetry is not for everyone. However, if you want to check out a really wonderful spoken word poet (who is not angry at the world), I highly recommend Sarah Kay’s “If I should have a daughter”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0snNB1yS3IE
It is amazing! And I’m not just saying that 🙂
I’m totally with you when it comes to Novelty Books. I want to know how those books get published!
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Hi Robin. Thanks for commenting. Im totally with you on concrete meanings. I wonder if you ever had any negative feedback from “purists” for taking this approach. Thank your for your recommendation – fabulous 🙂
High fives on the novelty books. Just nonsense when there are so many great reads out there gatherjng dust on the shelves!
Happy new year!
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I’ve never had negative feedback. It’s almost always positive. I do like using traditional poetry forms, while many contemporary poet’s prefer free verse.
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“I read it, scratch my head and then hit the appended commentary for a thorough interpretation of what academics have decided the subliminal meaning is. Without this I feel lost.”
But I thought that was true for everyone who reads poetry! One does not gulp poetry down, in a single, quick shot, like slick, thick prose, do they? Oh, my God, you would hate my site! I write Shakespearean sonnets. That is, I attempt to use Shakespeare’s form. Lately I have been editing my sonnet and often come up with something far better in a 42 word gargleblaster. As a poet, I do no more harm than the often dull prosaic and in a much shorter space, lol. And even I refuse to read poems longer than 14 to 20 lines. Please Read my “Waiting for the Morn”. Now, all I have said here is that at age 80 I am ever so happy and grateful for the miracle of each new day. Often, there is no hidden meaning. It is what it is. Maybe poetry is an ‘acquired’ taste, as someone earlier states.
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Wise words indeed. Loving that you refuse to read poems longer than 20 lines. Perhaps in time I will tune in, but in the meantime will probably stick mostly to fiction. Happy new year!
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Sorry I can’t convert you and a Happy New Year to you, to!
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