Modern-day poets
I watched an interesting movie recently that made me think about language, poetry, writing and the modern-day poet.I love language. It's part of the reason that I became a journalist initially. Language is the media that portrays a message, evokes an emotion, tells a story and more literally allows us to communicate with one another. However I have forgotten how to enjoy my obsession with language in the last four years or so. I went to varsity and language became a means to an end not the end result.What I mean by this is simple, poets make language their result. Yes the message exists but it is enhanced through the language they use, the words they choose and the sorts of construction that they decide to make use of.If you don't know anything about poetry and wondered what all the high-faluted hype was about do yourself a favour and read up about poetry a bit. Then go and read Frost, Thomas, Cummings, Blake and Eliot for a start. These are the greats of the past and the definitive poets of "our time". The reason I say "our time" is that these poets are not part of my time, my era or existence.Here are snippets of some of my favourite poet's writings:
The Road Not Takenby Robert FrostTwo roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth;Then took the other, as just as fair,And having perhaps the better claim,Because it was grassy and wanted wear;Though as for that the passing thereHad worn them really about the same,And both that morning equally layIn leaves no step had trodden black.Oh, I kept the first for another day!Yet knowing how way leads on to way,I doubted if I should ever come back.I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere ages and ages hence:Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference.
And another:
why must itself up every of a parkby E. E. Cummingswhy must itself up every of a parkanus stick some quote statue unquote toprove that a hero equals any jerkwho was afraid to dare to answer "no"?
Now tell me something. Who are the the poets of my era? Who wrote the great words of my time? Who told the stories that would define the present-day history?I would like to suggest that musicians today have become the poets of yesteryear.Here are some examples:
There's always somebody taller with more of a witAnd he's equipped to enthrall her and her friends think he’s fitAnd you just can't measure up though, you don't have a prayerWishing that you'd made the most of her when she was thereThey've got engaged there's no intention of a weddingHe's pinched ya bird and he'd probably kick your head inBigger boys and stolen sweetheartsOh, you’re better off without her anywayYou said you wasn't sad to see her goYeah, but I know you were thoughNow you don't know what she's up to you can only assumeIf she's not in the front of the shops then they've gone to his roomBet she's gone 'round in her school stuff, bet that’s what he likesI know you thought she were different and you thought she were niceBut she's not nice, she's pretty fucking far from niceShe’s looking at you funny rarely looking at you twice
That is a band I love, the Arctic Monkeys. The writing above, without the music, is poetry to me. It might not be an iambic pentameter. But Poetry, it is.The next example is from Greenday, one of the definitive bands of my era and I think one of the definitive poetry sources of my time.
I'm the son of rage and loveThe Jesus of SuburbiaFrom the bible of none of the aboveOn a steady diet of soda pop and RitalinNo one ever died for my sins in hellAs far as I can tellAt least the ones I got away withAnd there's nothing wrong with meThis is how I'm supposed to beIn a land of make believeThat don't believe in meGet my television fix sitting on my crucifixThe living room or my private wombWhile the moms and brads are awayTo fall in love and fall in debtTo alcohol and cigarettes and Mary JaneTo keep me insane and doing someone else's cocaineAnd there's nothing wrong with meThis is how I'm supposed to beIn a land of make believeThat don't believe in me
Above is part 1 of "Jesus of Suburbia".Next is one of my favourite songs from the last 5 years, The Foo Fighters and "Best of You":
I’ve got another confession to makeI’m your foolEveryone’s got their chains to breakHoldin’ youWere you born to resist or be abused?Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you?Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you?Are you gone and onto someone new?I needed somewhere to hang my headWithout your nooseYou gave me something that I didn’t haveBut had no useI was too weak to give inToo strong to loseMy heart is under arrest againBut I break looseMy head is giving me life or deathBut I can’t chooseI swear I’ll never give inNo, I refuseIs someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you?Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you?Has someone taken your faith?Its real, the pain you feelYour trust, you mustConfess
So to answer my own question, where are the poets of today, the modern-day writers that define our present-day history, they are in music, in the popular form of communication today. Poetry is no longer in the mainstream as it was back in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, today it is music and the musicians, songwriters and definitive minds might just exist in our music.For more poets of today I suggest reading:LennonDylanMarleyStevensMatthewsAppleTaylorKingNirvana (Kurt Cobain)OasisTupac ShakurChapmanWho would you consider poets of your era? Which poets do you read? What would you classify as poetry?
