We’re all poets now

 

The lost art of word-painting is creeping back thanks to trendy tech

WRITER JOSEPH EPSTEIN wrote an essay called Who Killed Poetry? Novelist Martin Amis made a speech about the disappearance of this art. Newsweek published an article headlined: “Poetry is dead. Does anyone really care?”

Here’s news for you guys. Poetry is creeping back to life. Poems are aspects of human experience distilled into small strings of words, right? Thanks to SMS phone texts (160 characters), Twitter messages (140 characters) and Facebook status lines (one short paragraph), millions of people all over the world have started writing poetry.

Most are awful, but some aren’t bad.

An artist called An Xiao writes fragmentary glimpses of her life on the internet: “Insomnia. Late night tap-tappings at the computer.”

On a friend’s Facebook page I saw this: “Mark Malby is sitting out in the garden in the night wind, looking across all the years.”

Adriaan Jacobsz published this on a Twitter message last week: “Dark clouds silent trees reach out into the noise.”

But of course people who write poetry lay themselves open to being teased.

Sam Cutler wrote this on his Facebook status line: “Last night I walked in the fields and told the Gods of our love whilst the stones cried.” Reader Wendy Peterson commented: “So sad, so beautiful.” But reader Simon Ford drew a more pragmatic conclusion: “Told you those magic mushrooms were good.”

Perhaps the prize for the most cringingly emotional Facebook status line goes to Atiq Anan, who wrote: “Antiq Anan doesn’t want to say anything, he just wants to feel.” Atiq, let me just take you aside for a quick word. You’re a GUY. Guys just don’t say that sort of thing. You’re letting the side down.

Of course, one can use these opportunities to write short epigrams which are funny rather than lyrical. Here are three:

1) NAME HERE bought ten meals at McDonalds and got a big fat bottom absolutely free.

2) NAME HERE plans to merge MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter and call it My Face You Twit.

3) And this one is from this columnist’s Facebook page:

NAME HERE realized long ago that he could never be a good example to young people, so he decided instead to be a horrible warning.

*

TALKING POINTS:
*
READER PETER BENTLEYcommented on a recent column on bottled water. “We once did some tests in Beijing on bottled water and Beijing tap water: they were exactly the same thing! Yes, water bottling companies were just pouring in normal Beijing tap water.” He reckons the same thing happens in many Asian cities, and I’m sure he’s right.

A reader named Mike said that people who paid for bottled water were just paying “a tax on stupidity”.

*
A SUICIDE BOMBER in Grozny, Russia, killed no one but herself, the media reported. Let’s just hope this is a new trend among suicide bombers. A problem that solves itself!

*
A BEGGER APPROACHED writer Robin Hemley and said: "Spare change for therapy?" Robin thought this was rather creative. His friend Robert Clark Young drew a different conclusion: “Therapists are accepting small change now? Wow, this really is a recession.”
*
HEALTH AUTHORITIES in Australia want to limit each sports fan to no more than one 24-can case of beer per day. Reader Dan Kubiske commented: “OMG! What will Aussies do after the first five minutes?”
*

(Poetry illustrations: mostly from I Can Read)
*

Technorati Tags: poetry,poetry is dead,martin amis,joseph epstein

Comments

[Christy]

Here's my favourite 3-liner I spotted somewhere

In a toilet
There are a million people waiting in line
All desperate.

Must have been written by a 6-year-old boy who likes all things smelly and disgusting. But somehow it feels really deep to me?!

I've posted my share of dreamy facebook status lines, too...
Christy Chiang is catching the last dancing shadows in the fields.
(Translation: I found a cockroach crawling into the freshly-washed choi sum and tried to kill it, screaming all this while)

[mahjuja]

I know a guy who went through this phase where all his FaceBook updates where short ryhmes or poems. I also see people trying to be poetic on FB for some reason. Does social networking create an irrepressable urge to write poetry?

[walter etty]

SMS poetry in exactly 160 signs (blanks included): www.precies160.nl
Almost 20.000 '160's sent in!

[Rika]

Wee bit out of context, but I just stumbled over this one - on Twitter, there you are - http://www.lisadempster.com.au/?p=1283

About visual artists, writers, is writing an art or a craft?, are editors needed?, what is the equivalent of an editor for visual artists?...

BTW: this 140 letter thing is really hard to use for a chatterbox, but I realise how much one can leave out and it still makes sense. Sometimes writing styles become a bit fluffy just because we love playing with words so much. Like special effect artists going overboard because they have the software for it.

[TS]

I will not rake my brain for a poem
I will not wring my brain for a poem
Yet here I am raking and wringing

[texter]

Best SMS:

when u rise, ur friends know who u r!
when u fall your u know who your friends r!

[Karn]

The shortest letter in the world, written from a son to his father asking for money:

"No mon,
No fun,
Your son."

In which the father replies:

"Too bad,
So sad,
Your dad."

[sej]

Christy, what were you doing in the gents toilets??

[Christy]

Oh! Caught red-handed! ;) I am a middle-aged balding pervert who have been imposting a 19-year-old girl all this time. Nury won't deport me, right?

....
Actually I read that in a book.;)

[farah]

no job
no money
no girls

no problem

that's the print for hot selling t-shirts for guys here available in different color and sizes.

[sej]

Christy, I don't know...? Nury's a pretty straight laced, run of the mill guy!!

Better make sure your passport is in order. Best to start now, with all the attempts you're going to need to get the photo done.

Seriously though, I must be one of the least poetic people around. I tried and tried to come up with something for a comment, but I have trouble coming in under 140 words let alone 140 characters, and then there's trying to make it rhyme or riddle, or anything!

[Ricardo Cabeza]

Newfoundland fisherman sitting on dock -
"Arn?"
Newfoundland fisherman - disembarking from boat - "Narn!"

[Angela]

Water water everywhere and we are dying of thirst

Pigs swimming with dogs swimming with people

My grandma her neighbors all on the roof

Waiting for daylight to bring salvation

[Angela]

Can you meet me halfway
right at the borderline
thats where i'm gonna wait for you
i'll be lookin' out night and day
took my heart to the limit
and this is where i stay

[Leo]

Forget me not on a summer day
Forget me not on a winter night
Forgive me not on a Saturday
Forgive me not on a virgin's night
----------------------------------

I wish not to see you again
Not on my screen
Nor in my dream

You are one bad bitch that will scream
Hurting my ears
Wasting my years

You are the worst of all losers
More grain my pain
no sane no brain

[mahjuja]

@Leo: What kind of poem was that? Can you post an analysis or explanation postscript to that?

[Chamin]

I am no good at poetry. May be those 24 cans of beer can make me poetic :-p

[TS]

Chamin,
Yes, beer does help but you will not be able to remember anything and your notes will unreadable :-)

[Iffat]

goddamit! and i thought i was the only one who CAN'T write poetry !

[Dipalle Parmar]

Poetry is so overrated and undersold. BTW are there serious buyers of poetry books?
Then again lets not boast
before we roast
the pig and
have his with toast
i shall see you off the coast
before you are lost.

It only means we are alright for we can play with words while the world palys with us.