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The Defence of Poetry! Proving Poems Aren't All Bad for Bad Poetry Day

By J'Shuall of Jackanapery

Do you think poetry is bad? / I’ll bet you it has made you mad / Schooling inflicted / Boredom afflicted / Isn’t it all so sad?

Title: National BAD Poetry Day

I’m sure your only experiences
Haven’t gifted adherence
It’s such a bore
Analysis a chore
Do they have to be so dense?

It’s this unfortunate state of affairs
That leaves poetry the greatest villain
That blinds you, leaving you trapped in your fears
Poetry doesn’t deserve this chagrin
“Oh, you rhyming twerp, and how is this so?
You’ll find you’re already immersed in it
What do you think of all the songs you know?
Or those ‘sick bars’ that the rappers do spit?
It is poetry, slandered it may be
By less-inspired teachers who make it boring
Poems are one way to make your thoughts free
Taking feelings outside and exploring
This, new generations have forgotten
Faultless they may be, there is beauty
There is pain, there is much to be caught in
Verse: an art for all, not just the snooty

A tan and white greyhound lying with snout pointing towards the camera and a coy look in her eyes

Apologies Ms Snoot, your monopoly on the world of verse has ended 😮

Let it have another shot at your heart
Learn to take in, or write, this greatest art

Today is a great day
That day of bad poetry
All verse is okay

I’ve done this before
Gifted you poems galore
Let’s do this once more
I have for you all
A most daring overhaul
Of books in general

Poems are short things, often tiny
Written with precision and great pain
Imagine a novel written in poetry

They capture a moment, a bit of reality
So string them together, do it again
Poems are short things, often tiny

It’s not actually new, it was done in history
Entire days of sung stories, right of the brain
Imagine a novel written in poetry

The Faerie Queene, Beowulf, Odyssey
All evidence against that common refrain
Poems are short things, often tiny

Before we had the pleasures of electricity
This was how they had to entertain
Imagine a novel written in poetry

Embrace this ancient form’s fantasy
Try something interesting, out of your domain
Poems are short things, often tiny
Imagine a novel written in poetry