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This is an intelligent poem -- one that DOES include irony and wit. Jesus Christ! It just gets better and better! It comes complete with a vocabulary and rhythm that most poems, on this board, anyway, lack. It's not only well written, but relevant too.
While most lines are excellent, the last one...
Quoted from poem
and so chaos theory was proven correct.
...is particularly good. It sums things up nicely.
As usual, I just do not get it. Which is why I avoid poetry, I suppose.
Avoiding poetry will only make you "get it" less and less till you got nothing at all. Poetry doesn't come in one sitting. It takes days, years, or decades to come to an understanding of a good poem. Its meaning will change for you. You'll notice different things. Maybe you'll like it less or more. Meaning is personal and is different for each person reading. Things may never be clear, but then, what is?
I mean, there is clearly a lot of clever wordplay going on here, but when it comes to adding it up, I have no idea what the sum is supposed to be.
If my poems, or any of my writing, can be put into columns and added or subtracted, multiplied or divided then shoot me. I'm a poet not your accountant. And did you file your taxes yet?
What are you saying? Is there an answer key available? And what the heck is a Jesus T-Rex?.
Modern religions or a T-Rex on a cross or a t-rex born to a virgin or a reconciliation between religion and science, creationism and evolution or a the son of god born from an reptile egg or... or... or...
I could come up with those all day.
The answer key is in your head. You just have to let go of the idea you have to "Get" everything. Use that overactive imagination you have that I see you use on your scripts and you'll get a lot more.
Thanks for the read. And hopefully I didn't ruin poetry for you.
I can definitely sympathize with Bert on this one. Don't get me wrong. I think this is one of the best poems I've read on this site, if for nothing else then your style.
But I really think a lot of poetry does a cop out when it comes to meaning.
Quoted Text
Avoiding poetry will only make you "get it" less and less till you got nothing at all. Poetry doesn't come in one sitting. It takes days, years, or decades to come to an understanding of a good poem. Its meaning will change for you. You'll notice different things. Maybe you'll like it less or more. Meaning is personal and is different for each person reading. Things may never be clear, but then, what is?
So is a Rorschach inkblot test poetry? I appreciate not being literal and hitting people on the head with your meaning, but I really think there can be something very self-indulgent in purposely obscuring what you mean to say.
If there isn't an exact meaning to the poem, that's great. Celebrate it! You have great nonsensical sentences in this one - they want to be spoken! But let's accept that there isn't meaning in the conventional sense, or something to 'get'. I think it's a bit insincere to let people search for a key to getting it, because they are just random images and scattershot ideas floating around the canvas. Unless I misunderstood something?
That being said, when I write songs or poetry (rarely) I always go for this approach. But I don't pretend my work is layered with meaning, because for the most part it's not. They are just characters and images that float in and out of my head.
I think post-modernism is corrupting a lot of great poetry. If every interpretation is right. Then no interpretation is right. And then there is no meaning.
"The Flux capacitor. It's what makes time travel possible."
I think post-modernism is corrupting a lot of great poetry. If every interpretation is right. Then no interpretation is right. And then there is no meaning.
I have to disagree with this statement.
Post-modern poetry expresses abstract concepts. Just because the reader interprets a poem in a way that is different than the author intended does not mean the poem has no meaning. It most certainly has meaning - if to no one else than the author.
The same can happen with abstract paintings. Just because you don't understand an abstract painting does not mean abstract paintings are corrupting painting. Though I'm sure some people would say exactly that.
There are plenty of people who shy away from things they don't understand. It's a reasonable reaction. But not understanding something is not a valid reason to condemn it.
Now...
If you want to read some poetry that intentionally defies interpretation -
The poem appears to be irrational and arbitrary, but only because it speaks of things irrational and arbitrary -- the capricious, unreasonable life, the structures, we are subject to.
Post-modern poetry expresses abstract concepts. Just because the reader interprets a poem in a way that is different than the author intended does not mean the poem has no meaning. It most certainly has meaning - if to no one else than the author.
The same can happen with abstract paintings. Just because you don't understand an abstract painting does not mean abstract paintings are corrupting painting. Though I'm sure some people would say exactly that.
There are plenty of people who shy away from things they don't understand. It's a reasonable reaction. But not understanding something is not a valid reason to condemn it.
Now...
If you want to read some poetry that intentionally has no single interpretation or a concrete meaning try -
And if you must know why I wrote them I would be happy to explain my reasons.
I would argue literature is communication. And if the only one who understands the meaning of your messgae is you, then you have failed to communicate.
The problem here is, DOES the author intend for his audience to take away a specific meaning? If he does, and if they don't take away that idea, he has essentially failed.
The post-modernist defense is: "Well, just because I didn't get the meaning the author intended, it doesn't mean the meaning I got is any less 'correct'".
But if every reading of a piece of poetry has an equal truth value, then that means my personal take on Emily Dickinson, that she wrote misogynist anti-consumerist elegies, is as good as Emily Dickinson's. And that voids the concept of meaning, because meaning distuingishes itself from nonsense by having a truth value. If everything is equally true, then nothing is false.
Or as I pointed out, everything is.
"The Flux capacitor. It's what makes time travel possible."
Modern religions or a T-Rex on a cross or a t-rex born to a virgin or a reconciliation between religion and science, creationism and evolution or a the son of god born from an reptile egg or... or... or...
I could come up with those all day.
Yeah, but see, that's what I am talking about. That's your answer? I still don't know what you mean.
None of that makes any sense, and it makes me suspect that even you don't know what you are talking about.
But my take on your answer is that it is meant to be like abstract art. Like splashes of paint on a canvas.
The only true meaning is one that I am forced to manufacture for myself.
You hit the nail on the head. Sometimes everything is. Sometimes a poem is just a combination of words that the author needs to get out of their head, an expression of emotion, a therapeutic purge. Sometimes even the author doesn't know what they mean - but they like them, they like the order, they like the way they sound together, they like the rythm they make, they are what the author wants to express - wants to communicate. It doesn't really matter how other people interpret them because those words are exactly what the author wants to say - they are.
You hit the nail on the head. Sometimes everything is. Sometimes a poem is just a combination of words that the author needs to get out of their head, an expression of emotion, a therapeutic purge. Sometimes even the author doesn't know what they mean - but they like them, they like the order, they like the way they sound together, they like the rythm they make, they are what the author wants to express - wants to communicate. It doesn't really matter how other people interpret them because those words are exactly what the author wants to say - they are.
I can definitely appreciate that. I just think it's inane to act as if there is a 'key' to understanding it, which some poets do (like David Lynch, sorry I can't help it;)).
I think Dethan's poem has some wonderful words, compounds, images in it. But I don't get it. And I hope I'm not supposed to.
It doesn't speak to me on any profound level, like say some Dylan Thomas does, where he expresses an idea or a thought that resonates inside me. But the words are purdy. And that's enough sometimes.
"The Flux capacitor. It's what makes time travel possible."
None of that makes any sense, and it makes me suspect that even you don't know what you are talking about.
The modern religions and creationism/evolutionism makes perfect sense to me. After those I can make up dozens of others. And I've heard people come up with weirder ones than those. I'm saying, once the poem is written how people interpret it is out of my hands.
But my take on your answer is that it is meant to be like abstract art. Like splashes of paint on a canvas.
Actually, it is what would be called a collage poem. It has meaning in starts and fits. But it does have a universal theme: Chaos and the modern world. Look at the title. Look at the last line. Look at the multiple perspectives.
And each section has a meaning of its own. Some are about the perils of consumerism. Some are about the beauty of transformation. Others are about government paranoia. The poem is seeping with meaning you can "get" if you wanted.
There is only one section that is about abstract art. Or is purely abstract. It is the section where I describe how I see a Van Gogh painting illuminated only by a computer screen. I don't expect people to see that. I was trying to communicate what I was seeing and experiencing. But words are clumsy things. If they convey the enjoyment of that experience that would be enough for me.
Quoted from DM
I would argue literature is communication. And if the only one who understands the meaning of your messgae is you, then you have failed to communicate.
Language is magic. Intangible. Rarely does anyone really understand each other. Language is the attempt to communicate. And it can feel hopeless, sometimes.
Language is magic. Intangible. Rarely does anyone really understand each other. Language is the attempt to communicate. And it can feel hopeless, sometimes.
Dethan
HAJHS jhaskjdh Fhahahas NANRER FLIATYE.
SSUADUA GGGGD TRYADlnkjf SHDJAHDKJADH JAJSA.
Language is structure.
"The Flux capacitor. It's what makes time travel possible."
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