perceptional poetry

okay so I have some explaining to do. This is a new type of poem the title is what i gave it because that is what this new style is called. this poem does not make sense read from top to bottom. For once im saying and giving people complete control over what they read. read it how you want and never the same way twice unless you like it that way. omit lines you want to. start at the bottom if you want to. skip lines if you want to . mix up the order if you want to . you are the reader read it how you want. perceptinal poetry. its mine you can use it but i claim it mine.


two words
give up
go out
never again
in waves
it's meaningless
in pain
it's worthless
never again
in dread
leaving you
no reason
the same
to live

two words
give up
go out
never again
in waves
it's meaningless
in pain
it's worthless
never again
in dread
leaving you
no reason
the same
to live

Well, before I go into punctuation, are you trying to go without that completely, like as a style, or just didn't put any in there? Same with capitalization.

okay so I have some explaining to do. This is a new type of poem the title is what i gave it because that is what this new style is called. this poem does not make sense read from top to bottom. For once im saying and giving people complete control over what they read. read it how you want and never the same way twice unless you like it that way. omit lines you want to. start at the bottom if you want to. skip lines if you want to . mix up the order if you want to . you are the reader read it how you want. perceptinal poetry. its mine you can use it but i claim it mine.

disregar my last as it is now at the top.

Wow. That's all I have to say. This is absolutely ingenious! One of the best things, is that I impusively mixed up the words as a read it over a few times. I would have done it even if I hadn't read your explanation. Which means you did your job, and did it well.

Is this a standard poetry form, or did you come up with it?

Now, understand, I don't usually give 'rave reviews'. There's always some little thing to fix. Not the case here. Punctuation would ruin it. It's acceptable to leave out capitalization in any poem if it's done consistently. As for structure and rhythm? They're all a matter of the perception.

Whether or not you came up with this style yourself, it was masterfully done. It's hard to describe whether I thought it was deep, or light, or serious, or straightforward... because it could be all those things. It's complicated, that much I can say.

Great job with this. It won't get old fast. *bookmarks page, and stars*

an amazing poem,
pure genius,

anyhow, this is one of the most unique things I have ever read, and yes, it is all of thsoe thing adna,

and from what he says, he invented it himself,

which is cool in itself, because how many people do you know that can say they have invented their own style of poetry,

my favorite,

Go out,
in waves,
never again,
in dread,
to live,

GOLD STAR!!!

sorry for the caps.
it deserves it,

Peace,
God

Well hello there evanrith, it's always nice to see someone taking an slightly deeper interest in their poetry, not just the nuts-and-bolts technicalities, it's very important. I have a couple of issues, I suppose.

Firstly:

This is a new type of poem the title is what i gave it because that is what this new style is called. this poem does not make sense read from top to bottom. For once im saying and giving people complete control over what they read. read it how you want and never the same way twice unless you like it that way. omit lines you want to. start at the bottom if you want to. skip lines if you want to . mix up the order if you want to . you are the reader read it how you want. perceptinal poetry. its mine you can use it but i claim it mine.

I'm afraid as much as you'd like to think you're the first at this, it's been done a lot. In fact, the ideas you're using have been at the centre of æsthetics [philosophy of art] at least since Plato, if not before. One of the key debates in this field is the question of the amount of interaction between author and audience: in short, how much of a piece is determined by the writer/artist and how much is determined by the reader/critic, etc.?

For example: you say, "im saying and giving people complete control over what they read" but exactly how true is that? You have still decided what the content of the poem will be, you have chosen the words and the format - like it or not, the words and style you have used will automatically trigger certain reponses in our brains, ones that we have no control over. As a writer or artist it is impossible to give complete control to your audience, no matter how much you try to leave up to them. Simply by the fact that you've suggested people read the lines out of order, they are more likely to do that: unintentionally, you are influencing their reading style without realising.

Also, have you done anything with this new style that doesn't always happen already? Within the limits I've outlined above, the reader always has some control over what they read and how they read - just because there is no paragraph at the beginning of a poem telling me how I should read Tennyson's Ulysses or Keat's Endymion doesn't mean I have to read it start to finish, word for word each time. In fact, I tend to read the middle sections of Endymion first, then the beginning and finally the end, whereas Ulysses I read from beginning to end, no pauses or breaks, every time. Or another example: I study the Bible as part of my university studies, and here it is absolutely vital that I discover new ways and orders of reading - I read different texts alongside one another, I read them out of order, I read them split up into odd sections and with pieces missing, I read them as if there were pieces missing where there are not.

Philosophers and writers before you have struggled with the style you are using here, trying to understand how far they are responsible for how their work is read, and how much is entirely out of their hands. Your 'perceptional' poetry is a neat idea, but it's not new, it's firmly built into the bedrock of philosophy that underpins all creative endevour.


Secondly:

okay so I have some explaining to do.

Not good. As a rule, any piece of work that you have to explain has some serious problems. Even by attempting an explanation before we've started reading, you are unfairly influencing your readers to try and read it how you want us to. It's a bit ironic, unfortunately - you are trying to write a poem that the reader has complete control over, but if you tell people that, it takes away a great deal of their control over how they read. Each of us has our own ways of approaching poems, and [with some VERY rare exceptions of which this is not one] it never helps to be prodded and poked toward someone else's ideals in such a way!

That's the philosophy of the thing. If you're genuinely interested, I'd recommend you read the Philosophy of Art section of Plato's Republic. He's not always flattering, but he does throw up some very interesting and perceptive points.


Philosphy aside, your poem needs a lot of work. I understand that you're trying to do something new, but I have to say there doesn't seem to be very much here for me to comment on. It's a string of unemotive, disconnected two-word phrases with no structure or punctuation, and as such I can't really detect any kind of substantial theme in there. There is no indication of who the voice in the poem is, or of any characters or plotline, and there is no particular setting or background. There's a vague sense of a painfully failed relationship, but it's so underdeveloped that we can't get our teeth into it at all.

Basically you've got a little floating cloud of poem - it's unsubstantial and uncertain of itself, and the reader is left with the feeling they've read several lines of nothing. If there's something behind this like a story or an idea or a person, great, I'd encourage you to develop it, but if you're just taking stock phrases and images you think will mean something when your reader puts it together for you, I'd encourage you to throw it away. It's always good to see people trying something new, but there are certain things poetry needs to be at all succesful [indeed, to mean anything at all] and these include a story, an image, some background, an idea to develop - any or all of these things. You cannot escape the conventions of poetry just by claiming your style is 'new', there are still things your work will have to have in order to reach your audience. The best advice I can give you is to read more poetry, lots and lots of it, and get a feel for how poems are developed.

Good luck.

Hi evan

I really like this style. I've reread it many times in different ways; each time I'm satisfied because the poem turns out to be what I want it to be. Does that make sense? *scratches head*
Well, what I mean is that instead of being disappointed with the result of the poem, I like it because I get to choose.
It's refreshing each time I read it, simply because it can be changed to appeal to me. However well-written a poem may be, it gets old after a while, right? This kind of thing's appeal can last longer because readers can choose what they want to get out of it.

OK, I'm finished confusing everyone. Here's what I think can improve:
For one, this poem was rather dark and depressing. If you truly want to give readers more 'freedom', then add a touch lightheartedness. Add a few lines with a more joyful tone rather than sorrowful. Give it a good mix of anger, sadness, happiness, etc..
Second: Make it a bit longer. Give us more to work with! I'd imagine poetry using this style could be quite a few lines longer than what you have.

Overall: Great! I really enjoyed reading this. Just remember that if you want to appeal to most audiences, you'll have to add a greater variety of emotions and such. Keep up the good work.


*anti-pop

Thanks to all of you. I'm pretty sure I made this being as alot of others have said they have never seen anything like it. But on the off chance that i didn't which is a possibility it's okay because it is still rare and you guys liked it. Thanks again

Genus! This will not be forgotten for awhile! How did you find out about this? Amazing. It can be insightful, silly and interesting at the same time. A wonderful poem.