Poetry Shmoetry

For me, Poetry is to the rest of writing as Curling is to Hockey. I admire the ambition and intense training that goes into a great group of Curlers, however I find their sport to be a bore to play and even more boring to watch. Now Hockey, there's a sport with some action, some thrill, a little suspense and every now again a drunken brawl- there's something I can pay attention to. So what's so different about the two? They both have ice, circular objects, sticks with different stuff attached to the end, and it takes at least a couple people to play both of them. But as with poetry vs. the wrest of the literary world, it comes down to ability to reach out to a broader audience.

Poetry takes more talent with words than I will ever know, and I can truly say that humbles me. Some of the best fiction and non-fiction writers could also pen out some pretty amazing shit that rhymes; and that takes skill. For me though, Poetry is a little beyond my radar as I do not fully understand all the complexities and subtle inflections that every poet worth their salt knows how to wield. It is with this limited understanding that I come to see poets and their readership as somewhat of an elitist secret club with 50 lines of Shakespeare's Iambic pentameter known by heart as the password. I've come to characterize people who enjoy poetry as the same type of person who has a favorite band that no one's ever heard of and only watch movies which never made it to the US. This type of person sees the world with a different pair of eyes, modern day treasure hunters who seek out that which sparkles in places unknown just to be able to say they were there to see it first. I can understand this, but I lack the will power for that kind of adventure, a shortcoming of mine i suppose.

Admittedly if it were not for my education I would never pick up a book of poetry on my own accord- just to enlighten myself a little bit. That being said, I am thankful for every teacher who has shoved a couplet in front of my face, because without their diligent efforts they would have lost another sheep to television and video games (Though I enjoy both very much).