Poems and more poems

March 27, 2005 10:54 PM

The time for more public poetry is at hand with the soon-to-arrive National Poetry Month. Perhaps you favor love poems? Poets and Writers listed the 25 best (among those online: #1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 13, 15, 19). Or perhaps ballads with a beat? This was once considered the best example, but this offensive poem is even more famous. Of course, nonsense is good, as is alliteration. Eager to take your own turn? Try some complex forms. Double sestina, anyone?
posted by blahblahblah (21 comments total)

Excuse me? Haiku?
Sodium thrown in water;
thus my geeky rage.
posted by sbutler at 11:44 PM on March 27, 2005

yes... I do see haiku in the linked article. it was more a comment on the poster's invitation. carry on.
posted by sbutler at 11:55 PM on March 27, 2005

thanks for the heads up
about npm. great links
(damn the popunders!)

friend-plug
self-plug
tons of poems
posted by al_fresco at 12:02 AM on March 28, 2005

To staunch the inevitable haiku flood, I would quote the link on poetic forms:

In my opinion,
The haiku ought to be left
To the Japanese.

Besides, everyone knows that all of the cool kids are into clerihews.
posted by blahblahblah at 12:43 AM on March 28, 2005

Poetry, to me
is the least pleasurable
of the written arts.

Vastly pretentious,
I choose a meaty novel
over word salad.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 1:01 AM on March 28, 2005

The majority of folk who write rhyme,
Are committing a terrible crime,
When they come up and say,
Will you hear this today?
I say, lets do it some other time...
posted by PeterMcDermott at 1:44 AM on March 28, 2005

shameless plug for my own hobby poetry site
posted by unrequited at 1:51 AM on March 28, 2005

"My sentence I cannot content,
But I do have one final request.
I'd like to be fit
With a bridle and bit
'Ere I hang for the crimes I've confessed."

So a bridle and bit were obtained;
The hangman took hold of the reins
Led him up on the deck
Put the noose 'round his neck
And said, "Now, would you care to explain?"

"My crimes, they were heinous, of course,
But I leave here with little remorse
For people will say
Of my passing this day,
'When he went... he was hung like a horse."
posted by Wolfdog at 4:03 AM on March 28, 2005

[T     S          S
                   I
     I
  H                    G
                           OOD
                                  ]
posted by felix betachat at 5:37 AM on March 28, 2005

WHAT was the use of not leaving it there where it would hang what was the use if there was no chance of ever seeing it come there and show that it was handsome and right in the way it showed it. The lesson is to learn that it does show it, that it shows it and that nothing, that there is nothing, that there is no more to do about it and just so much more is there plenty of reason for making an exchange.--Gertrude Stein

And paging troybob : >
posted by amberglow at 5:54 AM on March 28, 2005

On offensive poetry.
It fucking gets you fucking down.
Man hands on misery to Man
Of all them black-faced crew...
A shudder in the loins engenders there

Also, on the aforementioned theme....
friend plug
self plug (deceased)
loads of poems
posted by seanyboy at 7:26 AM on March 28, 2005

A plug for the U.S. Poet Laureate: Ted Kooser (Poetry that does not require explanation)
posted by spock at 8:29 AM on March 28, 2005

He pushes forth his desire on Metafilter,
A wish for the creative, a wish for poetry.
Wandering, aimless, suckled by the internet,
Finding no nourishment, utterly lost.
Desperate for the tiniest hint of signal.
he is buried in the silence of noise.

"Content" is a buzzword for noise,
A term of market, learned on Metafilter,
From those who wave their arms to signal
That they have value, their lives are poetry.
The soul deceives that hope is not lost
In the land of ghosts called Internet.

The train runs down those who heed not the signal,
Marked out in the cryptic glyphs of Internet.
A weird tradition, a sort of poetry
Created by looking at a negative of noise.
So the scholars hold forth in the halls of Metafilter,
Convinced that great truth is not ever lost.

But truth lies bleeding and lost,
Dying across the tracks, past the signal.
So wounds are bandaged by Nurse Metafilter,
But truth will be buried in cold Internet.
Mourners will grunt out funeral noise,
But slogans will stand for elegiac poetry.

What of it? Where's the heart of poetry?
Embedded in the past, to the present lost.
A "poet" like me only farts out sad noise,
And desperately tries to present it as signal.
Wasting time and talent on the Internet,
Giving what little best I have to Metafilter.

But continue with glorious noise, O Metafilter!
The Internet is richer for analogues of poetry.
Signal may float in the afterlife, but joy is not lost.

(Eek, that's a bit darker than I expected it to be! Should've chosen different end words...)
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 9:02 AM on March 28, 2005

Oops, end word order is wrong in stanza 2. Oh well, so much for my first (and probably last) sestina.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 9:04 AM on March 28, 2005

Does this and this count?
posted by MmmKlunk at 9:56 AM on March 28, 2005

For all your poetry needs:

The Wondering Minstrels
Poetry 180
Modern American Poetry
Poetry Daily
Poetry Chaikhana: Sacred poetry from around the world
McGonagall Online (the worst poet ever)
Alfred A. Knopf Poetry Month newsletter
and finally..
subscribe to Garrison Keiller's Writer's Almanac
posted by ancientgower at 10:01 AM on March 28, 2005 [1 favorite]

PinkStainlessTail - that was impressive.
posted by blahblahblah at 12:20 PM on March 28, 2005

Agreed - Impressive.
posted by seanyboy at 12:44 PM on March 28, 2005

PennSound and Sound Poetry on the Web are good if you like your poems out loud.
posted by jessamyn at 1:51 PM on March 28, 2005

Those are cool links, Jessamyn. I'm not really into traditional poetry, but I'm a huge fan of slam poetry. A personal favorite of mine is Buddy Wakefield. His performances are incredible.
posted by eppaRixey at 3:30 PM on March 28, 2005

I run an online poetry workshop which the poets among you should all join. The majority of the work is piss-poor teen angsty stuff, but only you can change that. Read the top 10. Read the collected works of gnormal, my favorite poet on the site. And my own work.

Great post. My personal pick for number one love poem is "This is Just to Say":

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

Or even "Asphodel, That Greeny Flower," also by Williams. Glad to see him represented in the number 2 slot, though. (Oh, or O'Hara's "Having a Coke With You." Read it, really, if you are in love.)
posted by rafter at 5:18 PM on March 30, 2005