ON POETRY

I was reminded over the past few days of a conversation I had with a former co-worker. She had studied poetry (and was planning on studying it further), and I was explaining to her how I didn't "get" free verse poetry, because it was basically writing sentences in strange ways. She told me that it wasn't about the format, that it was about what the words made the reader feel, and that I should be reading poetry to enjoy it, not to find deep and hidden meanings.

With that said, I humbly submit this shame-inducing effort from my high school days...this is probably worse than the effort I posted several weeks ago:

[note: wow, this really is bad.]
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182 v.1

Just as love had me leaning over
To smell the roses Reality walked by
And kicked me into the thorns - blood
Fell in the form of tears and various
Obscenities describing the ramifications of
Your flaunted enthusaism - really, was there
A need to grind what was left of my heart
Into hamburger meat? Did it have to be
Done in front of so many? My emotions have
Somersaulted endless times attempting to tll me
How to act; what am I supposed to do? Find
Someone else, lead them on, then break their heart?
My soul's committed suicide the pain has spread from deep inside
In solitary I abide for hours and hours I watched me die
I don't want help I don't need that
I don't want to deal with all this crap
My heart's in shambles just like my soul
What must I do? Write a thousand poems
Containing my love for you? Words fail in
Their attempt to describe your beauty - I
Need you - what else can I say? You
Had me tangled in your web of illusory
Merriment; Life would be good if I was
Able to have you; but apparently I just wasn't
Meant to be happy - when did you make that choice?
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Blerg. So, so, so, so many things wrong with it. Some questionable word choices, excessive semicolon usage, the weird rhyming breakdown, competing themes (do I hate her? do I love her? do I hate that I love her?) and the kind of blame-shifting that can only be done by 16-year-olds. The odd thing is that this girl did NOTHING to lead me on, so I really don't understand where all of that rage came from.

Also written in pencil in the upper left corner by someone else: "You're very talented. I wish I could only write like you. Thanks for letting me read these. PS This one is awesome! It's my favorite." I have no idea who wrote it - maybe the girl who cried when she read it during English class? However, the girl who inspired it left a note as well - "That's very wrong Brad."