Is a Rose Still a Rose if it’s Shaped Like a Pickle???
or… the importance of form in poetry
Hi everybody. It’s Anneliese, and I want to talk about poetry again.
[Pernoste] Again? A little bird is telling me that you like poetry.
[Anneliese] Your little bird would be correct. Do I need to suggest to your wife that they up your meds? Or have you become Dr. Dolittle?
[P] I choose the Dr. Dolittle option.
[A] That’s great! I’ve always wanted to see a Pushmi-Pullyu!
[P] Sorry. The Pushmi-Pullyu had a falling out with Dab-Dab and ran away.
[A] Ahh. Oh, well. Just my luck.
[P] Back to poetry? What is it you want to talk about?
[A] Ok, well… I’m very particular, as you may know.
[P] Hmmm. Hadn’t noticed.
[A] Liar. Your pants are SO on fire. Haha. I really like our poems to be perfect, in word, even sound, and especially in how they look.
Medium is an amazing forum for writers of all types from all walks of life and all types of different interests, and I believe it has more to offer than the other forums out there (to remain nameless). However, Medium is really better equipped for prose writing, blog writing, informational writing, than it is for poetry. Sadly 😞. The addition of some simple formatting options would make a tremendous difference for the poets here.
Such as:
1. More control of line-spacing; adding 1.5 line spacing to the available single- and double-spacing. Short poems are OK with double spacing, however longer ones become difficult to read comfortably unless the spacing is decreased a little. Single spacing sometimes seems too tight to read easily.
2. Ability to center or left or right justify text differently for each line
3. Using invisible text spaces for creative text alignment. [Blocking of wrapping with specially formatted poetry???]
[P] I agree. We’ve had to compromise a lot on our poetry with regard to formatting. Your ideas would be very helpful… I think.
[A] Allow me to make our case, with examples.
We writers are artists, and because of this we understand the blend of form, function and art. What prose writer does not trim oversized sentences, take care in their repetitive word usage, creatively break of paragraphs for pacing, emphasis, or to create tension? What writer is not upset when a critical paragraph is broken by a page break?
To those of us who are poets, especially, there is a particular kind of magic in words, and we give an inordinate amount of attention to word choices, and meanings, secondary connotations, the sound of the words themselves, and the feeling of how they flow in the sentence. [Add occasional rhyming to that, and one wonders how we poets can retain our sanity, LOL]. We limit our words and, thus, put as much power as we can into each word we choose.
[P] Yes, indeed. I remember the punch you used to pack in little 6 or 8 line poems back in our Twitter days.
[A] Yes. Before the X. Is it still called tweeting or x-ing? Never mind. I digress….
Anyway… poets are equally careful with regard to the content, the intent, the concepts captured… pruning away to the essentials and even removing some thoughts if we can imply such removed thoughts with the right words or conveyed emotions, before or after. The pacing of the words, the thoughts, we care greatly about, and we even try to control when you … mentally … breathe as you are reading our poems. See, I just did it there:)
Formatting and form is the third area of importance for poets, as the look, the beauty of our words on the page is so much a part of the feeling, the emotions. Poetry is not just words. It is an attempt to capture a slice of life, a feeling… be it whimsy, sadness, passion, love … in a way that changes you, if only in that moment of reading. Proper formatting can enhance this, or (at the very least) not get in the way.
Medium, although it works well for most of the writing here, falls short in opportunities for formatting options to allow the full beauty of longer poetry to be realized. I do not want my poems to look like a freshly-typed manuscript, double- or single-spaced, aligned left, and not as my desired final form. Look at the example below, a simple poem about a dream of love (Magic River by Anneliese Dahl).
- [Medium Formatting: left aligned, manual shift-return to get single line spacing
Magic river
I dreamed of stolen moments in exotic, mist-covered landscapes, lost on the hot winding river and then found in your enchanted eyes. To wake was to lose the magic in the air that the summer breathes. To persist in sweet sleep chanced drifting away to a lesser dream.
[P] Nice poem. I remember this one. I imagine a flowing river, a soft shape (at least) and not a hard flat edge with a ragged right edge. Form seems contrary to the inherent beauty of the imagery. Much like myself, haha.
[A] Nonsense, you’re sincerely quite handsome, old man, unlike my poem. She should look as lovely and sweet as she reads.
OK, let’s try again…..
2. [Medium Formatting (also Vocal Media formatting): left aligned, default double line spacing.
Magic river
I dreamed of stolen moments
in exotic, mist-covered landscapes,
lost on the hot winding river
and then found in your enchanted eyes.
To wake was to lose the magic
in the air that the summer breathes.
To persist in sweet sleep
chanced drifting away to a lesser dream.
[P] Not liking that at all, but surprisingly a little better than the first one. The words can breathe better with more space.
[A] OK, how about this?
3. [Alternative MS WORD flexible Formatting: centered 1.5 line spacing.]
[P] Best so far, I’d say. Looks softer… but more like a pond than a river. Maybe you could make the poem about a pond instead.
[A] No, ewww. There’s nothing sexy about a pond…. and they don’t wind… and there’s no movement past exotic landscapes. I just imagine sitting in a rowboat staring at Uncle Milty’s house overlooking the pond… with a septic system that drains into it.
[P] Well, not sure about Uncle Milty’s septic system, but you make a point. And maybe we should call the health department.
[A] Anyway, let me put your pond idea to rest. Drumroll please.
Where are you going?
[P] I’m looking for a drum.
[A] Sit down, you maniac. The readers can’t hear. Soooo….my personal favorite, just for this particular poem.
4. [Alternative Creative Formatting: 1.5 line spacing, with independent line positioning.]
[P] Yes, I like it better. It’s interesting and really grabs your eye. Definitely makes the poem more magical. I would hate to read every poem this way, but when it makes sense, some really interesting formatting could certainly be used.
[A] We’ve faced even greater challenges on Medium, for example in capturing a recent verse story Finding Ways (link), in which there are poetic passages with occasional sections of prose/dialog.
We considered (A) left text alignment with single spacing, breaking out prose/dialog paragraphs with dashed lines, and accepting the visual impact on the writing.
On the right, (B) you see that our preference was 1.5 line spacing, centered lines for verse sections, left alignment and single-spacing for short prose sections, dashed lines to separate out the small prose sections. The 1.5 line spacing is much easier to read than single spacing. Centering, allows one to see more of the poem, the shape of it on the page, rather seeing everything on the left with abrupt jutting out of wider prose paragraphs. Kinda looks like an airplane… which is cool (since the story occurs on a plane).
We ended up deciding to prose-ify the poetry (C) by reformatting the same words in longer paragraph form. It loses the impact of the poetry, but works OK. [Not everyone wants to read such long poetry anyway.]
FINDING WAYS — by Pernoste & Dahl
[By the way, please read Finding Ways if you can find the time. We feel it is one of our best works.]
[A] This is what we settled upon. Essentially we gave up. But I wish we had kept it as a verse story. It’s unique that way.
[P] The twelve people who read it and enjoyed it didn’t mind. And, I don’t know, but maybe people cringe when they see poetry longer than about 12 lines.
[A] As poets, we know that getting people to read poetry is hard enough as it is, since it differs in both style and intent from prose writing. A looong poem . . . . very few will brave. And not all poetry looks good squished against the left side of the page as though on the carnival Tilt-a-Wheel.
Perhaps only I feel the drag of some arcane gravity on the left on this forum. I must read hard cover poetry books to keep from falling over (to the left) after too much reading time on Medium, lol.
OK enough blathering on from the young poet.
[P] And the old poet needs a nap.
[A] You do not. You run circles around me.
Anyway, we love it here! Love you all with your wonderful and weird and obtuse and sweet and everything-else brains writing all your different things. And much love to the wonderful people at Medium who keep all this creativity spinning.
Let us know what you think about poetry and formatting and anything else that strikes the noggin.
💙Anneliese & Pernoste
Check out our other writing on Medium and our verse novel “In the Minuses” on Amazon.
