Rules, poetry and the liberation of the soul

About a week ago, I posted into The Order of Pen Facebook group a saucy poem about poetry (and life), which stirred the waters a bit. Then, I posted the poem at my personal Facebook page.

Sloan Bashinsky
Who invented the rule that poetry must rhyme, have pentameter, be cast into verse? Yes, please tell me, who , just who, invented that really silly rule? Surely it wasn't the maker of the first stone- otherwise, there'd be no stones to break all those slaving rules!

Ky
There is no rule as such

Sloan Bashinsky
Heh, not according to some replies after I posted that poem into a Facebook writing group and it cleared moderation.

Here are all the responses at The Order of Pen:

Damon

I've written a couple of thousand verses that rhyme, but I've never heard of that rule before. Indeed the whole notion of poetic licence and artistic license is so that the writer or artist can create whatever they want to...

Sloan BashinskyAuthor

Damon The Muse cannot be chained 

フィリピン 愛

Because poetry was invented before the writing system. Having measures make poems and songs easier to memorize.

Pat

If not it's just a paragraph....

Clement

Yeah, who decided that poetry had to be, well, poetry? Lol

Angie

Google it n find out

Martin

Poetry is subjective. Sure you can conform to the "proper" structures of what is acceptable by traditional standards. In my experience, it's never that complicated. Poetry is simple. Focusing on form only inhibits creativity and honesty.

Alicia

Free verse exists, so you don't have to do any of those things.

Thomas

Poetry doesn’t have to rhyme, it doesn’t even have to make sense . It only has to touch the heart of the reader. Thank goodness I’ve never liked poetry.

Martin

And, with this sensible question, how does one explain the expression, "poetry in motion"?

Kevin
Martin Marty Katz Badly
https://youtu.be/Oy_ArpznZUs
YOUTUBE.COM

Johnny Tillotson - Poetry In Motion 

Jude
So, who invented these silly languages ?...maybe we should just click our tongues, or bark like dogs or mew!
They are not rules..it's just the way a form of literary expression evolved! . . . If every one wanted their form of expression accepted as literary masterpieces, there wouldnt be such masterpieces!

It's usually the best that survive and evolve!

Omar

I turned to writing for what I saw as a lack of rules and the freedom of expression through words... and now you tell me there are actually rules .. bugga me now I'm getting that just cant win feeling... cheers. 

Alexandra

Omar ignore the rules. It's about expression.

Sloan BashinskyAuthor

Alexandra 😎 

Omar

Alexandra trust me when I tell you I do and always wlil

Nick

Worst haiku ever

Kevin

It is poetry or it is prose. You decide. There are those who would insist that poetry is structured, but it won't necessarily fall over if you move a brick. I think there're 10 syllables in every line except one of Especially When the October Wind. Thomas had more in his tool box than just rhyme and rhythm.

David
It wasn't me, I hope you see
It might be true that it was YOU
in any case it is the norm 

so start to rhyme, you must conform!

SloanBashinskyAuthor

David 😎

Eleanor

The ancient Norse Skalds defined poetry as "meter and metaphor" in the Skaldskraparmal, Prose Edda vs. 69

Montee
Poetry that does not rhyme is called prose and it's perfectly acceptable.

A perfect example of prose would be Banjo Peterson's Man from Snowy River.

Sloan BashinskyAuthor
Montee according to?

Montee

SloanBashinsky my 10th grade English Lit teacher:-) LOL

Sloan BashinskyAuthor

Montee from God’s mouth to his/her ears?

Montee

Sloan Bashinsky Ms Dawson was a good teacher. She made literature come alive to all of the students.Active

Sloan BashinskyAuthor

Montee did she suggest The Old Man and the Sea, the last novel Hemingway completed, was his unconscious grace under fire suicide note?

Montee

Sloan Bashinsky I don't remember the commentary but I can tell you this we did read that one in class. Please forgive me, that was almost 50 years ago LOL

Sloan BashinskyAuthor

Montee that notion came to me from out of the blue in summer of 1990, after I was asked to present at a writers workshop. My topic was, Writing As A Mystical Exoerience

Alexandra

Montee Crow No. Prose and non-rhyming poetry or free verse are not the same.

Kevin

Montee Was there a typo there somewhere Montee? Man from SR rhymes and has rhythm.

Lei

Poetry that rhymes is just one form of many

James

It's not a rule at all.

Sloan BashinskyAuthor

James 👍

Alexandrar

Walt Whitman pioneered free verse poetry ages ago. Poetry doesn't have to rhyme. There are no rules to poetry. Whatever sounds good to whoever is writing it.

Jerry
Speaking to your souls in Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs, sing with your heart to the Lord...

And let his word dwell in you abundantly and in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, singing with Grace in your hearts to God.

Byron
In God We trust 
In diamonds we Rust. 

Without rhyme or reason

Brenda
It doesn't have to rhyme.
Mix it up
Break some rules but know which to follow

If writing in non- rhyming form, it would be nice to have a theme run through, eg you could use alliteration - find something to connect or else it will sound like you're just rambling on in your non-rhyming poem

Modain

Rhythm is in your walking steps.Rhythm is in rain and storms when they hit.Rhythm is pitiful and lamenting.I mean,no instrument plays a melody without rhythm.

Sloan BashinskyAuthor

Modain 👍

Lungile

What you’ve protested there is sheer poetry as prose, it too doesn’t rhyme. Is it poetry though?

Sloan BashinskyAuthor

Lungile sheer poetry isn’t poetry?

Sloan BashinskyAuthor
The Muse has her own ways the mind can never understand, l learned in the early 1994, in this way.
I was attending a weekly Sunday "church" service in a rented space in a dowmtown Boulder, Colorado building. The congregation, there was no minister, were trying to get along in a confusing world. The sponsors took turns leading the gathering. At the very end of one meeting, a fellow I had never seen before came up from the back and asked us to all close our eyes and ask God what we could best do to serve God? I closed my eyes, and saw a beautiful white quill writing pen. My heart heaved, tears are to my eyes. I left the meeting and rode my bicycle home.
That night, sitting in the easy chair in my bedroom, looking out the window up through the bar stark winter limbs of a large black willow tree at the moon, I was seized to pick up my writing journal and then started writing one word at a time, as if I was taking dictation. Lots of tears came over the next few weeks, as one little formless poem after another came, including the one I posted here, which is about life, living. For that's what life is, poetry, and that's what poetry is, life.

sloanbashinsky@yahoo.com