6 reasons why a rebel might bother writing in traditional poetic forms

⚠️ References to racism and violence

Well a strange thing happened, I wrote 12 tankas (which I wrote about here), and before I knew it, I was hooked on sonnets! Ok before I say another word about iambic pentameter, I’d like to explain WHY a non-conformist like me might bother writing in a traditional poetic form.

People pay attention when someone does something entertaining, different or inventive. I can play you classical piano til I'm blue in the face, and yes it’s nice that I can talk to people who might hate what I stand for - it’s a good move for compassion and all that, but as of recent times, words are what I want to use to make people stop and think.

This morning, I watched a video my friend reposted where Amanda Seales talks in a tearful voice about Breonna Taylor who was brutally shot multiple times by the police who tried to enter her apartment without announcing themselves. We have not even heard about her because there is no video. Why are black people getting shot for exercising and sleeping in their homes? It’s not ok. It’s racism.

I wrote some prose about (corona)racism but it gets too long-winded. By comparison, I have written several poems and lyrics on racism. At present, prose cannot handle the quantity and multiplicity of my ideas. I wake up at 6 am each day with more ideas! The relative brevity poetry (reading, writing and having it read by others) works for me at the moment. The poems I have written so far are bashed out quite hurriedly. I haven’t posted them all online and I hope they’ll improve the more I write and learn.

I hope that the wide appeal of traditional forms might help to bring attention to important matters ignored by those with privilege. I want to use the forms of the privileged to honour important hidden issues, to pay my respects to the dead by getting lyrically angry about it. For centuries the language of a lot of poetry has been cloaked in mystery which still excludes people including me - and I have an English degree! In an improv workshop, the musician Peter Weigold said working with six-year-olds is useful because it shows you what works (is clear). I would like six-year-olds to understand (some of) my poems/work. Also, using colloquial/prosaic language, and sometimes mixing it with the posh stuff is I think it reflects what I hear and how I speak.

Six cool reasons I’m exploring traditional forms:

Creativity can improve mental health.
To develop new/deeper skills in my chosen branch of creativity (can also boost mental health).
To bring attention to important contemporary issues.
To rebel against tradition. Debunk mystery/poshness/ artifice in traditional forms by using obvious/every day/ crude language. Use high-flown language to describe a down-to-earth situation.
The reminder that limited materials/tools can result in surprising creativity. DIY tactics can strengthen resourcefuless and problem-solving skills.
It’s a chance to research the work of poets who have used/experimented with traditional forms.

Recently, I heard the poet Carlos Mauricio Rojas share two poems at a ZOOM fundraiser for Pueblito Paisa (Latin Village), Seven Sisters Indoor Market in London. I attended in solidarity. I have eaten cake at Pueblito Paisa and it was there that I had an interview for a music commission. I am including these details because I'm interested in sense memories and how they contribute to our experiences and to how you encounter the information that I give you.

I first encountered Rojas at a poetry workshop at Decolonise Fest when Qraft Bistro held a workshop there. I popped into Rojas' workshop and found their manner very gentle and welcoming. Fast-forward to the 2020 Fundraiser. It was so powerful to hear a queer poet reading a poem about aspects of mother/s and migrant diaspora seeking ways. It seemed especially poignant during these lockdown times when many are struggling emotionally and practically for various reasons and there is a big sense of disconnection. Through my own tears, I could see those of others. Rojas helped us connect with the power of emotions, memories and beautiful resonant images.

As much as I deplore the erstwhile incel/ dead white man/ cis male woe dominated content of canon poetry (I’ve been looking at sonnets so far), if you can figure out what the writer is saying, there is some kind of basic human emotion: longing/ desire/ sadness/ bliss/ fury and so on. If I have a purpose in looking at their poems (and it’s much quicker to read a poem than watch a feature length film!) it is slightly less tedious and also connects to the sense that humans through the ages have used to words to communicate intense feelings that might have not been taken well if expressed directly in conversation. I felt such a shock and also a sense of connection when Mona Arshi said that for her Asian parents poetry is a “useless profession”. Crucially, she adds a twist in the tale by concluding that poetry has an enormous value for humans:

“Poetry is the perfect vehicle for telling the truth. And actually, the lyric poem in a way, functions as a container for almost unbearable emotional pain. Why is it that certain things can only be held in the tensile line of a poem, can only be answered in a poetic form?”

From the responses I receive when I play piano music, it seems that I have accumulated the skill to convey emotion from my thousands of hours of practice. It is my dream to do that with other mediums of my art - including words.

Tom Waits says, “Your hands are like dogs, going to the same places they've been. You have to be careful when playing is no longer in the mind but in the fingers, going to happy places. You have to break them of their habits or you don't explore, you only play what is confident and pleasing. I'm learning to break those habits by playing instruments I know absolutely nothing about, like a bassoon or a waterphone..”

I want my hands to learn new tricks and skills. I’m seeing that words could be an ideal way for me to deliver compassionate rage through the rhythm of subterfuge. I hope the outcome of my efforts will inspire others.

*in other words = “agitate with language”

Next Blog Post: “What I couldn’t imagine I would say” - Brief Notes on Pushing Formal Poetry from Patrick Gillespie and Jericho Brown

Home

mental health, poetry, writingThe Mollusc Dimension20 May 2020rebel, traditional poetry