I've developed an addiction to browsing people's LiveJournals. A
lot of these people seem to feel the need to write poetry, and
everytime I read these poems, I feel embarrassed for the authors.
The main problem is, the poetry doesn't rhyme. And in the rare
instances where it does rhyme, they've totally screwed up the
syllable count, which screws up the rhythm and makes the poetry
even more boring to read.
Unless a poem rhymes, it will suck. That's a given. If any of you
write poetry that doesn't rhyme, you're a failure as an artist. The
only people that think that poetry doesn't need to rhyme are the
elitist, aristocratic snobs that also believe that paintings don't need
to include shape, form, and space. You know, the people that spend
$25,000 on scribbles and splashes.
But (!), although rhyming is very important, there still needs to be
substance in the words; they need to mean something. And that's
why most hiphop lyrics suck, too.
People have offered to read me their poetry before. I always refuse.
Hearing someone's poetry makes me feel too uncomfortable. Chances
are it's going to suck, and chances are I'm going to giggle because
I feel embarrassed for them. And if I don't giggle, then I'm going to
be put into a position where I have to lie and say that it was good,
just so I don't hurt their feelings (I'm a sensitive dude, I don't like
hurting people).
