I Love Poetry, Just Not What You Write - Jay Marshall

I think I may have now earned myself a reputation for being a cynical, pessimistic and egocentric Journalism student considering that the majority (if not all) of the things I have written have been highly critical with very little praising. So since I’ve created a nice little clique for my writing I may as well keep up with that attitude and complain about society even further, this time about poetry. Oh yes, I’m going there, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me. It may just be my fault for having far too many emotionally unstable “friends” on MySpace, Facebook and various other networking sites. But then again, maybe it’s their fault for being too damn melodramatic and attention-seeking. I think I’ll choose the latter, only because that makes me feel better about myself.

But in all seriousness, what is going on with my generation? Do they honestly think everyone cares about their problems? I’m sure that none of the hundreds upon hundreds of “friends” they have never met on their networking sites don’t care; I certainly don’t. I mean, sure I’d be worried and concerned if something was actually wrong with their life, but when they decide to write long poems about how the world hates them oh-so-much through extremely grotesque, blood-and-guts metaphors and similes, I’m just going to assume you’re a whiny little brat who should get the hell off the internet.

Sure, I enjoy the occasional venting session, but if I’m going to do it it’ll be direct. If someone made my day a living hell, I’ll let them know and won’t hold back, but these people run home and hide behind their computers and start writing unoriginal poems with no real meaning or emotion in it. Shakespeare isn’t happy, and nor am I. Seriously, I’m absolutely cool with sharing your problems and getting a little sympathy, so why not tell us all what’s wrong? Am I really expected to translate “An eternal struggle in the blackness, as black as a decomposing body” to “My Mum grounded me for being in the bathroom too long”?

Don’t view this as a vendetta against people expressing themselves, because I know that poetry is a great place for people to share their innermost feeling and thoughts on things. My vendetta is against people who abuse the hell out of poetry for no other reason than to gain sympathy from as many people they can in the form of comments. I’m appalled that this phase has arisen from my generation, let alone the fact they’re desecrating an ancient art. Come on kiddies, get over the angst and start doing your schoolwork rather than make every poet’s work to bring poetry to the mainstream go to waste.