i
can’t
stand
poetry
like
this.
It bothers me when people fling the conventions I’m used to out the window with such reckless abandon. It feels like if you were listening to a new song and the artist, instead of singing tunes, said: “Actually, here is four minutes of silence, randomly interspersed with me quietly clearing my throat.” It’s jarring.
It’s not that I can’t take deviations from the norm, IN ACCEPTABLE DOSES. See? I just capitalized three words that didn’t need it, and I used a CONJUNCTION. I’m not a complete purist, nor do I hate change.
I like stylistic choices. I make my own stylistic choices. They’re not always great, but they happen. My issue with contemporary poetry isn’t just a style thing, though. I believe that an author’s style can be literarily deviant. I like reading books by contemporary authors, and I like poetry. My repulsion at the line breaks employed by authors like Rupi Kaur does not stem from a fundamental ignorance of the genre, I promise.
No, my hatred of poetry books like “Milk and Honey” is due to their simplicity. I’ve always subscribed to the belief that less is more. However, spreading out your words does not ascribe to them any extra level of meaning. The sentence “I miss you” means something. That same sentence, when separated into three lines, means something too, except this time I’m irritated because you made me work to read it rather than just getting it over with.
I don’t like to think too hard. Inexplicably, it seems that some people do. Thinking IS nice, SOMETIMES. Reading a nonsensical, archaic poem and finally “getting” it after solid minutes of hard thinking is nice. However, reading some contemporary poetry is so different.
It’s like you’re trying to search for meaning, only to come up empty every time. I mean, come on! Throw in some imagery, some convoluted metaphors that allude to something you yourself are confused by. Have some depth!
I am a teenage girl. To root against a genre of art pioneered by my peers feels wrong. I hold firm, though, because I know that teenage girls can make waves in artistic fields in ways I like better. So until the wind changes, you can catch me complaining about this.
Eva Buckner is a senior and the ECHO’s opinions editor and columnist. Outside of writing, she babysits and plays volleyball. She is also the vice president of East’s March For Our Lives chapter, and president of LitCon. Eva can be contacted at evahelenbuckner@gmail.com.
