The Power of Poetry

Stop and Write a Poem

I wrote two poems today, and I won’t stop for two more weeks or so. In my poetry is the truth. That beauty is in the eye of the beholder and, therefore, not subjective. My poems will tell you how you can see beauty in everything by looking harder and that it could be anything but that if you don’t find beauty, then it’s all your fault. It doesn’t matter if you’re right or wrong because it’s your interpretation and your opinion. Everyone should have their own views and opinions. So there is no right or wrong in this essay. If you think differently, then it’s your place to change my opinion. The abstract idea was written in first person. I got the idea for this poem and it was an easy one at that so getting these two ideas together was much simpler than I would have thought. Part of my poem will be about why we should be happy even when we are sad, lonely, awkward, and confused.

1️⃣ The abstract idea

In the mind of a broken man, The truth is everything, Without truth, there will be chaos. Without truth, I am just writing for nothing. In the mind of a broken man, there are many truths, Some are false, and some are true. But all truths in my mind are lustful and angry within me. I have many ideas, though they may be abject in their own way. Why should I stop for one second and not write what I write? Because I am a broken man who has lived in the truth for too long. My writing is my way of life because without it, I am a still man with no mind. Through my writing, I have found many truths and share them with you, And because of this, maybe you can find something inside yourself. What I have just written means that it doesn’t matter what you believe, but that you should believe in something.

2️⃣ The Ivory Tower

It is not that the tower is just ivory, Oftentimes it could be so much more than that. It is a bone of a bird, and if you can’t see it, A tall splinter against the sky. This tower has been around for much longer than the air we breathe, And no one knows what it’s made of. This abstract idea of ivory has never given me any peace.

The abstract idea is the Ivory Tower.

Two ideas together are far more interesting than just one. One idea is so boring that you can’t even think of anything to write, but two ideas together can create a collage of different ideas. In a poem, it could be where the tone is serious, and then it becomes funny in the next line or stanza. But it’s not always like this, but it could be.

“There is no longer an ivory tower, retreat and isolation are no longer permissible. But what counts in a work of art is not what so many intellectuals want to find in it. The important thing is how it implicates lived facts and human truth in its upward movement.” Joan Miró

Joan Miró, “Statement,” Cahiers d’Art (Paris), April–May 1939, in Margit Rowell, Selected Writings and Interviews, p. 166.