Why We Need Bad Poetry

For my son

A man who took some chances. Image by Welcome to All ! ツ from Pixabay

Let me hear a poem that doesn’t rhyme,
one with metric feet unsure
but assuredly inured
to the enduring immaturity
of adolescent sophistry in verse.
Or even worse.

Just say it. If you have to, say it badly.
Bad’s okay — sometimes that’s where you have to start.
The point is, never let the poetry
get in the way of what you need to say.
Don’t let your message wait until
you’ve honed your talents lyrical,
for writing well depends far less
on talent than the willingness
to take that inarticulate
initial draft, and line by line
refine it all the way to eloquence.

After all, why do you write at all?
If all your words are perfect,
then your object is perfection,
and that says to me,
your subject isn’t truth.

It’s a question of balance:
how to push the words beyond their limits
but stop just short of losing all coherence.
Every work of…