The Purpose of Poetry

[rayheinrich]

There are two separate purposes, one for the reader and one for the writer.

The purpose of reading poetry is to entertain, to enlighten, to expand the mind and gain perspective. Different people, different tastes, different poems will have different effects, therefore there are multiple purposes.

The sole purpose of writing poetry is to learn to do it well enough that you can have an entire conversation in sonnets about hairy armpits and bestiality.

Ahhh . . . I knew there was a purpose somewhere.

    Found it:

    Hind limb buds are apparent on the embryo of a poetic porpoise as small bumps near the base of the tail:

[RiverNotch]

Dulce et Utile?

Also maybe this idea I got from reading Joseph Campbell: like, the process of creating or reading poetry could be compared to the Hero's Journey, where the ultimate goal is to get a boon or reconcile oneself with the father (destroy inner demons while at the same time getting some internal sense of power or something) or marry the mother-goddess (like, maybe develop a fuller appreciation of nature) or become a god of your own one poem at a time, and return to society either to establish a definite, individual role, or to turn around the conventions of society around you and make it all better or whatever. A bit, I dunno, mythic or whatever, but with all the associations he has with Jungian concepts of the subconscious, and with the idea of poetry being a self-contained social expression of ideas through ironic, dream-like images, and with the other idea of poetry as being a passage in time and space (a la how one experiences the narrative of a dream -- a meaningful in depth semi-personal analysis of the everything of the work that almost always involves the subconscious), seems way more valid than it maybe should be.

[crow]

Poetry is ordering words according to aesthetic constraints.

[rayheinrich]

Poetry is ordering words according to aesthetic constraints.

The aesthetic constraints are quite obvious
(as Leanne, ever eloquent, has stated previously*).

Our task, hard though it may be, is to determine the order:
Does bestiality come before or after hairy armpits?

ray

There are two separate purposes, one for the reader and one for the writer.

The purpose of reading poetry is to entertain, to enlighten, to expand the mind,
and gain perspective. Different people, different tastes, different poems will have
different effects, therefore there are multiple purposes.

*The sole purpose of writing poetry is to learn to do it well enough that you can
have an entire conversation in sonnets about hairy armpits and bestiality.

[just mercedes]

Are hairy armpits caused by bestiality, or do hairy armpits cause bestiality? I wonder if I'll ever know.

[billy]

Does bestiality come before or after hairy armpits?

ray

it comes in hairy armpits i think

[Leanne]

A gent sought his fortune at sea
and went overboard in a storm
right down to the bottom went he
where sea creatures swirled in a swarm.

He came to a rest in a shell,
the coffin of some giant clam,
and thrashing about, gave a yell,
"Hey fish, do you know who I am?"

There came a reply from the foam,
"Hold still for a moment, young chap,
we'll see about getting you home
but you've given your leg quite a tap."

The gentleman looked at his shin
and noticed the bone sticking out
then looked back again to the fin
of his rescuer -- then he passed out.

When next he awoke, on the shore,
he thought he'd imagined it all
till he glimpsed that delphinous head
and heard its farewell call:

"Don't be a stranger, Bob Frost,
and make sure you tell all your friends
when humans are broken or lost
the porpoise of poetry mends."

[billy]

may i say fuck off

[Leanne]

You may, since you already know how much attention I'll pay you