We are all human beings We all have our own lives And different ways we live them But each one of us is a writer And this poem is for all of you
All of you who have virtues and use them in your writing Those who use flashbacks and revisit mental photo albums
Beginning the story from the middle for that’s usually where you mind is at Looking back then looking forward Studying the past so you can be ready for what is to come
Recording catastrophes with a number two pencil
Tales and blurbs of tragedy Caused by love or the lack there of
Rewards and punishment Self-reliance and self-fulfillment
We are mere narrators Humble, maybe unreliable Equipped with numerous devices Ironic Paradoxes Red herrings Fortuitous plot twists Metaphors Allegoric hyperboles Analogies Oxymorons and onomatopoeias
We sling Chekhov’s gun like bandits of literacy
We’re visionary revolutionaries Revolution of the mind, body and soul
Changing ourselves and examining who and what we are To become what we are destined to be The best
Rejecting convention Building our own paths That lead to cliffhangers
Romantic lust Comedic affairs Dark massacres Spiritual healing
Religious speculation And the questioning of the way we, the people are being governed
We use the tools we are giving to sculpt new art that the world can stand in awe of
Personification Symbolic imagery
Practicing pastiche with respect Dionysian imitatio
Surreal reality Defying mortality
Reiteration and retort
Using nature to express emotion and thought
Doubts and fear
Opposites Morals and ethics
Satisfying curiosity
Parodying what we see Embellishing just a little
We us word play to dive deep into the topic of conscious, subconscious and unconscious thought
Using satire to poke fun at the human condition, its senses and perception of the universe to get readers thinking
We write with great candor about war, personal conflicts, and self-abuse
With hinting undertones to give these ideas a second thought
We write of the supernatural, metaphysical mysteries Outlandish, obscure mind boggling theories
As the clock ticks too fast for us and the characters we’ve created
Demolishing the fourth wall with a sledge hammer of defamiliarization
Epiphanies in a parking lot Speaking in the 1st, 2nd or 3rd person
Using fun things like anagrams and palindromes Candy for the lovers of such things
Spontaneity is an understatement Nonsense is an insulting overstatement Absurdity seems to fit just right
We are chameleons We can write in various forms Streams of gratifying consciousness Brilliant prose Beautiful poetry
And chose to use or merely acknowledge the ways to achieve these forms Rhetoric, rhythm and rhyme Meter and mora Conceit and consonance Assonance Intonation Working with phonaesthetics
And accenting aesthetics
A poem can or could not be organized as such If we want to get technical about it
We have a poem With a number of verses And in those verses Are lines And those lines might rhyme And have a meter or rhythm Stressed or unstressed syllables
In contrast to that we may write Without all of that and use emotion Feeling and structure our work with what we feel is the best way Line breaks Pauses and puns Silly similes Ambiguous antonyms Intonation, linguistics Fight against the fascists of grammar and conservative correctness
So, in the end we are writers of a rainbow kaleidoscope forms, devices, ways and ideas
But we alone are the ones who make the world think Make it move Revolt Renew Learn Look back Remember Cry Smile Forget Ease
Write my friends write until your mind explodes and your fingers bleed
Read, read and become inspired Even if what you’re reading is bad cheese
Forget getting published it’s the writing that matters Disregard the off-putting, critical chatter
And if you think no one reads Than be the seed and sprout a tree of astounding artistry And let’s begin a new movement composed of ideals that will hold true forever I might be preaching to the choir but it must be said that poetry; literature isn’t dead