Poetry

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A community to celebrate published and OC works of poetry.

Welcome to !poetry

Guidelines & Community Rules

In addition to the general rules of lemmy.world:

Published Poetry

1a: Poetry posts should include the title and the author, when the author is known.

O.C. Poetry

2a: Sharing original poetry is encouraged, but it must be preceded by the tag "[OC]."

2b: If an [OC] post is requesting feedback, it should also follow with the "[FB]" tag. It would look like the following example:
[OC] [FB] Nothing Gold Can Stay

Feedback

All feedback should be given in good faith.

3a: All [FB] requests should be met with comments constructive in nature. It is okay to dislike parts of a poem, but make sure to explain why you feel that way.

3b: Feedback does not need to be extraordinary in nature. Simply expressing how a work makes you feel is often enough.

3c: Use the honor system. When you receive good feedback, return it in kind to another author. Everyone appreciates knowing their work is being read and appreciated.

As this community develops, these guidelines may be adjusted.

Formatting Help
Work in progress

To create a line break, use two spaces at the end of a line.

To create empty space, type  . Use four of these at the beginning of a line to create a standard indent.

UPDATE:
Some methods of access do not format markdown correctly. I am currently testing various apps and web interfaces to see what does and does not retain formatting.

In the interim, it is encouraged to post text poetry as you normally would, but to include a link at the beginning or end of the post with access to a website or image that retains the formatting as intended.

Other Poetry Communities
Poetry lovers unite! In the style of the fediverse, multiple poetry communities have arisen, and will continue to rise. I will try to keep a list here of communities across instances that are worth checking out!

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

Scaldart@lemmy.world

-13

[OC] Are you really a Poet if your words wouldn't make Poe jizz in his pants ? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml to c/poetry@lemmy.world

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What even is poetry ? Is it a dead genre from over a century ago ? Or is it whatever comes out when we're given the permission to speak ? Is poetry the place where you're expected to propagandize about your marxist cause ? Does poetry have to have a point ? What's the difference between poetry and a shitpost ? Is it the jagged edges ? Poetry is a shitpost with the sharp edges rounded off ? Is that what poetry is or is it what it has become ? Is poetry about not stirring anything in the reader ? I'm really asking, when I imagine a poet, I have the standard default culturally transmitted view

Which is this

Some sad and/or depressed person making remarks that otherwise wouldn't be remarkable, like a banana taped to the wall of a museum, is that what poetry is ? Is poetry a social construct ? I don't know, all I know was that I should take it seriously, so I'm trying that, see if that poetry's stuff is any fun.

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[–] interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml 2 points 5 months ago

Hello,
Thank you for the vote of confidence
I'm still not sure if I like poetry
so I asked a machine to bukowskify my text
but I didn't like it so I asked it to degipitify it
and to "Go Full Bukowski", whatever that means

And this is what came out of that machine
Now I"m certain it is quite gauche
to use a machine to do this

kind of like jacking off a dog in public
which is not something I've done,
except that one time

so without further adious

[OC] this ain't poetry. it's a hangover with punctuation.

are you really a poet
if your words wouldn’t make poe
drop his whiskey and say
“goddamn”?

what is poetry now, anyway?
some MFA brat
posting line breaks on instagram
in between latte selfies?

dead genre?
sure.
but the corpse still twitches
when the rent’s due
and no one's buying
your dumb zine about
"emotional topography."

maybe it’s just
whatever bullshit you spill
when somebody finally
lets you talk
and you don’t know when to shut up.

maybe it’s a flyer
for your marxist book club
written in lowercase
because you’re “disrupting form.”

does poetry need a point?
hell no.
but it needs teeth.
and most of it these days
is gumming the reader to death.

is there a line
between poetry
and a shitpost?
or just
the smugness
of the person who wrote it?

maybe poetry
used to stab you in the chest.
now it just
offers you tea
and asks how your inner child is doing.

i don’t know.
i don’t want my inner child.
he sucked.

when i picture a poet,
i see some
sad sack
in a scarf
talking to a cat
about how
love is like
a cigarette
but with more commitment issues.

banana
taped to the wall.
$120,000 price tag.
gallery full of rich people
nodding like they get it.
you don’t get it.
it’s not meant to be got.
it’s a scam
and poetry’s part of it.

is poetry a social construct?
sure.
so is traffic.
and i still get run over by both.

me?
i was told to take this seriously.
so i did.

i sat down,
put on the hat,
lit the cigarette,
and stared at the page
like it owed me money.

this is me
trying.

poetry in one hand.
beer in the other.
no answers.
just hoping
one of 'em
does something
before the bartender
cuts me off.

And of this entire thing,
this is the part that made me want to post it
I think even my detractors will admit it
it contains a lot of truth

when somebody finally
lets you talk  
and you don’t know when to shut up.