What's Your Stanza?

Poetry. Be ye for it or agin it?

Poetry was the subject of discussion in our house this morning and I have no idea how it started. Generally speaking, I don't enjoy reading poetry. Well, I mostly don't like reading the kind of poetry that doesn't rhyme. I do like Shakespeare, Robert Frost and Dr. Seuss, for example.

I read for content and story, more than intellectual ideas and feelings, maybe that's it? Hm, that sounded shallow, didn't it? I mean that I enjoy the story and like to get the message sort of subliminally, not get hit over the head with it. My first reaction to a poem is "here's a hammer, waiting to fall". I kind of look at 'free form' poetry as speed bumps on the road to a conclusion. Which may be just what is intended.

Ameranth has several good friends who write poetry and one told her that there are indeed rules and that she enjoys fitting her ideas inside those parameters. I don't know what the rules are though. Maybe if I did, I would appreciate poems more.

I wonder what makes certain people Poets? Of the non-rhyming type, that is. I daily make up songs and rhymes as I feed the dogs, do the laundry etc. I often wrote  poems parodying seasonal songs for my coworkers' amusement, but I dismiss what I do as doggerel. Shoeshine writes Poetry, and J did too, when he 'wore a younger man's clothes'.

It is just an individual taste, as in music. I like clear words and rhymes in my music as well. I like Billy Joel because his songs tell a story and he has such clever rhymes. I know many people denigrate his work for just those qualities. Why should I feel apologetic because I like pop music and fantasy novels over heavy metal and free verse? The answer is I shouldn't and I really don't.

There is no real point to this post, just random thoughts, like the name says.

                                Hey, maybe I
             should have written
                                            it like this.
                                      And I could have it both ways.
                                        *Shrug*