Also, my obsession with poetry is absolutely to do with the musicality of it. There is almost a mystical power in hidden rhyme, phonetic patterns, assonance, and repetition. When a skilled poet hides that music from the eye, but not the ear, I get an intense pleasure from reading it. I suppose it's all to do with harmony...if something is musical, then we automatically think of it as "true". Think about how powerful rhyme is and how it is used (misused) in advertising...when something rhymes, we automatically think it's true and we remember it.
An apple a day keeps the doctor away...what?!? Lol. It rhymes, so it must be true...
Thanks for the compliment my friend. You're making a VERY good point and one backed up by neuroscientists, psychologists, NLP practitioners, hell even evolutionary biologists will talk about things like bird song.
Rhyme and alliteration definitely FEEL like they point to some sort of deeper level within the construction of language itself. I don't care about the origin of the Corpus Hermeticum - divine revelation - no. Product of the original Greek philosophers? Medieval forgery? I don't think option three weakens its ideas one iota. It talks about language as both a path to "divine power" and a construct that must be transcended (NOT destroyed) to reach it. Substitute divine power with self actualisation and the point very much stands :)
Graeme, I have always viewed poetry as the way forward. When I get tired of thinking and writing in a structured way I ask, “How does the poet in me see this?” It is a question that must be asked because as simple as it is, it gets me engaged, it forces me to look at things through a lens. I am able to see, as you said, “between the ordered world of action and the shifting planes of imagination.”
I think this helps with other forms of writing as well. If I were being completely honest with you I would say I know it does in the long term. That our short sightedness, though very focused on what is possible, we eventually need to take off our glasses to see what is happening.
Think of someone examining the world and seeing every detail of the things in front of them. Too much of this and they get consumed by particulars. When they eventually take off their glasses and are able to see the scope, there they can find the origin of experimental novels. The stuff that isn’t this or that. The stuff no one has ever done before. Poetry or not.
Some excellent points. Thinking about all this, I would say that poetry utilises a methodology distinct from either storytelling or journalism.
Poetry (IMHO) is more concerned with form than function in language. Novelists and journalists will sometimes use wordplay, alliteration, or aesthetic devices on a piece to underline a point, or to improve the piece atheistically. Poets, however, see these devices as integral to their craft, concerned with investigating or manipulating language over linear narrative.
This opens up a distinct form of investigation offering substantially different results. People sometimes complain that poetry is rambling or opaque, with too many disconnected ideas. Actually, the poet has stumbled upon interesting connections between seemingly unrelated words and phrases. Similarities in pronunciation and/or their appearance on the page revealing esoteric connections.
Like the ancient Egyptian or Mesopotamian scribes, poets bring language back to the realm of the metaphysical and transcendental. Syllables become symphonic and ciphers become sculptural. Language becomes a tool to shape thought and experience, rather a mechanism to catalogue them. Through poetry, we also see how reshaping language can expand our experience and scope of possibility. The words flower and power seem to hold completely different ideas - a passive expression of natural beauty and a man-made concept of dominance. Yet they share the same phonetic root… What does that mean? What can we do with that? Best send in the poets.
This is a beautiful write up!
Also, my obsession with poetry is absolutely to do with the musicality of it. There is almost a mystical power in hidden rhyme, phonetic patterns, assonance, and repetition. When a skilled poet hides that music from the eye, but not the ear, I get an intense pleasure from reading it. I suppose it's all to do with harmony...if something is musical, then we automatically think of it as "true". Think about how powerful rhyme is and how it is used (misused) in advertising...when something rhymes, we automatically think it's true and we remember it.
An apple a day keeps the doctor away...what?!? Lol. It rhymes, so it must be true...
Thanks for the compliment my friend. You're making a VERY good point and one backed up by neuroscientists, psychologists, NLP practitioners, hell even evolutionary biologists will talk about things like bird song.
Rhyme and alliteration definitely FEEL like they point to some sort of deeper level within the construction of language itself. I don't care about the origin of the Corpus Hermeticum - divine revelation - no. Product of the original Greek philosophers? Medieval forgery? I don't think option three weakens its ideas one iota. It talks about language as both a path to "divine power" and a construct that must be transcended (NOT destroyed) to reach it. Substitute divine power with self actualisation and the point very much stands :)
Graeme, I have always viewed poetry as the way forward. When I get tired of thinking and writing in a structured way I ask, “How does the poet in me see this?” It is a question that must be asked because as simple as it is, it gets me engaged, it forces me to look at things through a lens. I am able to see, as you said, “between the ordered world of action and the shifting planes of imagination.”
I think this helps with other forms of writing as well. If I were being completely honest with you I would say I know it does in the long term. That our short sightedness, though very focused on what is possible, we eventually need to take off our glasses to see what is happening.
Think of someone examining the world and seeing every detail of the things in front of them. Too much of this and they get consumed by particulars. When they eventually take off their glasses and are able to see the scope, there they can find the origin of experimental novels. The stuff that isn’t this or that. The stuff no one has ever done before. Poetry or not.
Just some thoughts…
Some excellent points. Thinking about all this, I would say that poetry utilises a methodology distinct from either storytelling or journalism.
Poetry (IMHO) is more concerned with form than function in language. Novelists and journalists will sometimes use wordplay, alliteration, or aesthetic devices on a piece to underline a point, or to improve the piece atheistically. Poets, however, see these devices as integral to their craft, concerned with investigating or manipulating language over linear narrative.
This opens up a distinct form of investigation offering substantially different results. People sometimes complain that poetry is rambling or opaque, with too many disconnected ideas. Actually, the poet has stumbled upon interesting connections between seemingly unrelated words and phrases. Similarities in pronunciation and/or their appearance on the page revealing esoteric connections.
Like the ancient Egyptian or Mesopotamian scribes, poets bring language back to the realm of the metaphysical and transcendental. Syllables become symphonic and ciphers become sculptural. Language becomes a tool to shape thought and experience, rather a mechanism to catalogue them. Through poetry, we also see how reshaping language can expand our experience and scope of possibility. The words flower and power seem to hold completely different ideas - a passive expression of natural beauty and a man-made concept of dominance. Yet they share the same phonetic root… What does that mean? What can we do with that? Best send in the poets.