column: I tackle poetry ... and get slammed
SLIGHTLY OFF THE MARK
My fiancée is taking a poetry class this year, so I, being a writer, decided to take a crack at writing poetry myself.
Why didn’t someone stop me?
Thank goodness I’m better at prose. Thank goodness Emily is better at poetry, or she’d be scoring a big fat goose egg, which rhymes with … I don’t know, something.
My understanding has always been that poetry is writing that’s short and structured and rhymes, while prose just rambles on, the way I do. However, it turns out that poetry doesn’t always rhyme, and some poems have gone on to book lengths. There are, in fact, many dozens of types of poetry, from Haiku to Jintishi. I thought Jintishi was a condition related to liver damage from too much drinking, but no.
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My fiancée is taking a poetry class this year, so I, being a writer, decided to take a crack at writing poetry myself.
Why didn’t someone stop me?
Thank goodness I’m better at prose. Thank goodness Emily is better at poetry, or she’d be scoring a big fat goose egg, which rhymes with … I don’t know, something.
My understanding has always been that poetry is writing that’s short and structured and rhymes, while prose just rambles on, the way I do. However, it turns out that poetry doesn’t always rhyme, and some poems have gone on to book lengths. There are, in fact, many dozens of types of poetry, from Haiku to Jintishi. I thought Jintishi was a condition related to liver damage from too much drinking, but no.
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