Active Now

Slartibartfast
Discussion » Statements » I like poetry, but am very, very fussy about which I like... I found this poem just now and wanted to share it..
Adaydreambeliever

I like poetry, but am very, very fussy about which I like... I found this poem just now and wanted to share it..

I guess it typifies my taste in poems? It's about people, it's about how we think and feel... I've a friend who writes the most awesome poems, he always rhymes and he always adds humour and a twist..  I've another friend who's poetry I just cannot abide lol...  anyway, I liked this one :)

Risk

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental
To reach out for another is to risk involvement
To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self
To place your ideas and your dreams 
before the crowd is to risk their loss.

To love is to risk not being loved in return
To live is to risk dying
To hope is to risk despair
To try is to risk failure

But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard
In life is to risk nothing.

The person who does nothing has nothing and is nothing
They may avoid suffering and sorrow but they
Cannot learn, feel change, grow, love life.
Chained by their certitudes they re a slave, 
They have forfeited their freedom.

Only a person who risks is free.

Author unknown.

Posted - April 10, 2017
Tags : None

Responses


  • 6477
    I've written the odd poem or two... and the odd article or two.... lol and people are *always* telling me I should write a book - erm but that's a different story altogether :P
      April 10, 2017 2:07 PM MDT
    1

  • 6477
    I'm sure you could write a book that would be more than equally thrilling and keep the reader on the edge of his seat too 
      April 10, 2017 2:19 PM MDT
    1

  • A very nice piece. I enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing it
    .I too, am a fan of poetry.
      April 10, 2017 7:00 PM MDT
    0

  • 604
    not nice to say this, but I will anyway.........I just don't 'get' poetry......writing stuff that does or does not rhyme.......if it doesn't rhyme, why then is it considered 'poetry'? or am I just plain ignorant about this whole thing?

    would appreciate your thoughts, ok? 
      November 21, 2017 8:36 AM MST
    0

  • 7280
    Well, I do feel your pain.

    Poetry (the term derives from a variant of the Greek term, poiesis, "making") is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language—such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre—to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, the prosaic ostensible meaning.

    Poetry uses forms and conventions to suggest differential interpretation to words, or to evoke emotive responses. Devices such as assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhythm are sometimes used to achieve musical or incantatory effects. The use of ambiguity, symbolism, irony and other stylistic elements of poetic diction often leaves a poem open to multiple interpretations. Similarly figures of speech such as metaphor, simile and metonymy create a resonance between otherwise disparate images—a layering of meanings, forming connections previously not perceived. Kindred forms of resonance may exist, between individual verses, in their patterns of rhyme or rhythm.

    Personally, I don't particularly enjoy poetry; but I suspect that represents some sort of (very mild) failure on my part.

    There is some meat in the following, but it takes some effort to get it prepared for consumption:

    The Aeneid is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC.  It comprises 9,896 lines in dactylic hexameter. 

    [Dactylic hexameter (also known as "heroic hexameter" and "the meter of epic") is a form of meter or rhythmic scheme in poetry. It is traditionally associated with the quantitative meter of classical epic poetry in both Greek and Latin and was consequently considered to be the Grand Style of classical poetry. Some premier examples of its use are Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid, and Ovid's Metamorphoses. Hexameters also form part of elegiac poetry in both languages, alternating with dactylic pentameters.}

    Edited to add italics.

     This post was edited by tom jackson at November 21, 2017 9:08 AM MST
      November 21, 2017 9:07 AM MST
    0

  • 6098
    These hieroglyphs of snow
    On wheelrut, pond, and ditch,
    The tracks of quail and doe
    Like quilting overstitch,
    Can only just imply
    The truth of what they say:
    That bird and beast passed by
    And winter came this way. 

                        Lesley Frost
      November 21, 2017 10:13 AM MST
    0