The 'art of poetics' at Brown University

In class yesterday everyone talked about the art of the poem.  I don’t know anything about poems.  I didn’t know what to say.  One time I raised my hand, but put it down when I realized what I had to say wasn’t relevant to the discussion.  By the end of class I feel I had a better understanding of the art of poetics.  I learned there are five steps to writing a poem.  If you follow these steps you will know how to write a poem.

Step 1:  There are a lot of ways to approach a poem.

Step 2:  Sometimes there are words in a poem like, “Green” and “Trees.”

Step 3:  There is a place in the poem where existence will be real or the poem will sometimes talk about real places.

Step 4:  A poem will sometimes be read by people who don’t know the poet.

Step 5:  During intermission if you have to go the bathroom use the sink on the right.  The sink on the left doesn’t have a lot of water pressure.  The sink on the left will not get all the soap off your hands.

Two people read their poems in class.  One was named Rachel.  The other person was named Aaron.  I’ve changed their names for the sake of confidentiality.  Their poems were much more real than any poem I’ve ever written.  I think they followed the steps of how to write a poem very closely.  I would like to share their poems with you.  I think I can remember them.

Aaron’s poem was something like:

“The ocean is full of octopuses.  96 tentacles.  Jellyfish eating my dead uncle’s face in the coffin laughing because everyone dies but the jelly fish. The tentacles eat garbage and wear boot-shaped fur Ugz boots.  There is graffiti.  It says, ‘I am the best pussy dick has ever fucked.’  S&M on your face.  S&M on your face.  S&M in your ass and then on your face.  LOL.  Something. Dot. Slash. :::*::: LOL#@! ##@ @!**&%#@!)+_+__###@%*^*((@#(@#@#&@(&@(&(&)__*$@)(*)(@#@&^!&*^@*(^$&@*)()&”

As you can see Aaron was really into Steps 3 and 5.  He lightly touched on the others.  The great thing about poetry is that you can play around with the steps and use them as much or as little as you want.

Rachel’s poem was something like:

“Eat walls.  These walls are hanging out with Jellyfish laughing at everyone’s dead relatives.  Eat walls.  Round walls. Walls are fat.  Walls need to go on a diet and become advertisements for Jenny Craig.  No, Jenny Craig is menopause.  Insert a reference.  Relevance.  Let’s move into a wall.  I want to move into a wall.  You don’t seem interested.  I will make you live in a wall.  Obese walls.  We’ll put you in our stove, let you gamble, extend a line of credit, feed you confidence, take your money, shuffle you to prison, stuff S&M in your ass, feed your ass S&M for dinner, laugh, tell you about the good times, eat your own walls, devour wall’s obesity as your obesity.”

You could argue Rachel skipped step four, but I think because she hit the others so hard you can let step four slide.