Thursday 25 January, 2007

-17°F (-27°C.)


Robert Burns (January 25, 1759 – July 21, 1796)

I think it quite appropriate that the anniversary of the famous Scottish Bard's Birthday falls on Poetry Thursday this year.

The Prompt for this week was to tell in 153 words or less, why I love poetry.




Why I love poetry...in 153 words or less
by [rel]

When I was a young lad, a friend of my parents once said to me, rel you're just like your father…you’re a dreamer. Silently, I took offense…not at being like my father, but that he would call me a dreamer. Now some 50 years later, I realize (actually I realized it long ago) that he was right. I don’t take offense at it anymore, nor do I know for sure if he meant anything derogatory by it at the time he said it. He may have just been stating his observations.

I’m a deeply emotional person; I feel sadness, joy, hate, lust, love, anger, calm, fear, etc. seemingly, at the far ends of the emotion spectrum. Poetry gives me an outlet to express these feelings with all the vividness they require. Poetry is emotional writing.

Reading poetry is refreshing, rewarding and instructive. How other authors reveal themselves, which words they use to clearly explain their thoughts is what draws me to poetry. The cleanness of expression is exquisite, and I hunger for the ability to do the same.

In honor of Robbie Burns’ birthday I’m posting a poem he wrote which I hope reflects what I mean when I say poetry is emotional writing.

I Murder Hate by Field or Flood

1

I murder hate by field or flood,

Tho’ Glory’s name may screen us,

In wars at hame I’ll spend my blood___

Life-giving wars of Venus.

The deities that I adore

Are Social Peace and Plenty:

I’m better pleas’d to make one more

Than be the death of twenty.

2

I would not die like Socrates,

For all the fuss of Plato;

Nor would I with Leonidas,

Nor yet would I with Cato;

The zealots of the Church and State

Shall ne’er my mortal foes be;

But let me have bold Zimri’s fate

Within the arms of Cozbi.

Sorry! (307 words)