Poetry: Odd and Pretenscious

John W. Pinkerton

oldjwpinkerton@gmail.com

I've noticed that I haven't written any poetry lately…hmmm.

I spent a lifetime not caring much for poetry: it seemed pretentious to me…and it still feels that way.  However, some years ago I wrote my first poem:

I am mankind

come from the sea

I am Man

I am man

I am me

Being an English teacher, I was more than a little bothered by the word “me.”  Grammatically it should be “I,” but that doesn't rhyme with “sea.”  I put the poem aside considering it a failure.  One day my mind said to me, “John, you're the only one in the universe who cares about the grammatical correctness of this poem.

Accepting this, I resumed my efforts to write “poetry.”

The quotation marks are used because I don't believe in the concept of “poetry”---my concept is that it's simply prose dressed up in an odd costume which draws attention to itself.

However, my old brain has also said to me, “John, poetry has been around a long time.  Brilliant minds from Shakespeare to Longfellow to Frost and Sandburg have scribbled “poetry.”   Who am I to question their efforts?

I am mankind

come from the sea

I am Man

I am man

I am me

If I live long enough, I suppose I'll write more “poetry,” but I also suspect that I'll also still consider it an odd and pretentious form.

enough