Rules of the rhyme

This article by Bruce Price stunned me, grabbed me and shook me.

For so long I've looked at the “poetry” I've written and, to a certain, extent, felt shame.. So often you hear about the rules of poetry, a snobbish friend of mine exclusively writes Haiku's that I find terribly dingy and dull. Nonetheless, I've always believed that he must be doing the right thing (even if I think it's shite) because he's obeying a set of rules that I'd never bothered finding out about until a few days ago.

You see, despite any shame I may have felt the truth is that I've always enjoyed my own writing. I've never cared if it was pretentious, snotty or so deep as to be impossible to interpret. All that mattered to me was that it expressed me. Thats what my poetry does, whether or not it can actually be called poetry is another question entirely, but thats not important to me. The feeling, the expression, the passion and the pain. Those are what matter.

I write poems for myself.

I'm happy if anyone else out there can read and relate, but first and foremost my poetry is an exercise in self-expression. I often read poems of my own, written years ago, and find new meanings there that I'd never recognised before. Thats what it's all about! Discovering yourself through the sharing of yourself. Whether you're using your poetry to describe heartbreak and pain, or something as simple as the first green of Spring, It tells something about you, how you view the world, how you interact with it. How it all affects you.

Mere ramblings? Perhaps.. But then, thats what my poetry is.. and it's me