Josey Wales & Poetry

Updating my site proved to have been impossible this past week with work and holiday company. Over the Thanksgiving holiday a few poems were brought to my attention. I suppose they might have been a bit more tolerable had they been about some Old West subject matter, but alas, that was not the case. I don’t care much for poetry. Much like the poet’s work I read this weekend, I find it forced and disingenuous. Poetry in its most virgin sense, has nothing but attention as its defense. It cannot escape its unnatural flow,
Crammed inside a box by some conflicted foe. Basically, what I’m saying is I don’t like it because it’s not natural. At the first attempt at making something ‘rhyme’, it loses its originality. Try as you will, it will never be pure. I have seen poetry that doesn’t rhyme and I guess that may be an exception to the rule. I consider an uninhibited flow of information from one’s mind natural. Since the brain doesn’t inherently rhyme or other actions that define poetry (loosely or strictly), then it isn’t natural in the sense I mean. It’s edited to fit poetry’s acceptable standards… ie, ‘made into poetry’. I think there should be some word that refers to simple thoughts. Philosophy? I’m not a fan – too much vague bull. Just thoughts not meant to be wisdom, or intellectual, or anything… just… well, poetic writing that is not constrained by any rules. I prefer gifted screenwriting to traditional poetry. Done well, screenwriting has the ability to say everything in just a few short words. Consider the dialogue from The Unforgiven. The scene involves Billy Munny’s conversation with The Kid shortly after they’ve taken a life. MUNNY It’s a hell of a thing, ain’t it, killin’ a man. You take everythin’ he’s got… an’ everythin’ he’s ever gonna have… THE KID (trying to pull him- self together) Well, I gu-guess they had it… comin’. MUNNY We all got it comin’, Kid. That’s poetry to me. A message conveyed in simple, but elegant terms. Another one of those simple, but elegant pieces came from The Outlaw Josey Wales. JOSEY Now remember, when things look bad and it looks like you’re not gonna make it, then you gotta get mean. I mean plumb, mad-dog mean. ‘Cause if you lose your head and you give up then you neither live nor win. That’s just the way it is. Words to live by indeed and just what I intend to do.