verbosity is not the same as literary

Going to a reading listening to poetry that has all the life sucked out of it can put a girl in a bad mood. I can appreciate all kinds of work for what they are and where they come from, different styles than my own for sure, but hear this Art School Poets: don’t subject me to too much of that you just chose-a-bunch-of-words-you-picked out-at-random-from-a-dictionary-hoping-you’d-sound-smart or obscure enough and then read it like you just woke up. I’m sure you spent a lot of time on it. Let me read it in my spare time with my dictionary in hand (right, cause I have spare time). I’d rather listen to spoken word from a kid’s first time up at the open mic with her journal rapping about unicorns. At least she has heart.

One of my first true inspirations to really write that I can remember comes from stories I heard many years ago about revolutionaries like Ernesto Cardenal teaching literacy in Central America through poetry. When I read some of these poems I realized anyone can learn to write poetry. Some just have that innate gift of storytelling and others just need the tools to bring that out. As I progress through my creative writing program I keep myself grounded in a simple desire to communicate and tell stories playing with all the tools I can, discarding the ones that don’t serve me, comfortable in the feeling that I at least left myself open to styles that may even for the time being oppress me.

But I get to a point where I just want to go back to the comfort of poetry that was actually meant for me to understand without being too plain. Give me something with a little heart. Sure there’s a space for everything but don’t oppress me with your verbosity and then wonder why I don’t buy your book.

There. I hope you feel better now we have made that clear. I know I do.

Oh great.I just had the urge to type a smiley face so I wouldn’t upset the literary establishment too much. Effing nice girl socialization. That’s another topic for another day.