POETRY…OR WHAT?

To The Reader Welcome to ‘POETRY … OR WHAT?’ The question in the title is just for you; it is for you to decide; whatever your answer, it will be correct! There may be those who would tell you in detail what poetry is meant to be, but we shall not be doing that here. In simple terms poetry presumably includes poems, odes and sonnets, for instance, and is a method of communicating. There are other forms of words for communicating, which overlap with poetry or with each other, such as prose, lyrics and songs, doggerel, instruction manuals, news bulletins, and so on. You may have come across an anthology of poetry, entitled ETERNAL TIME, published in 2002 by Poetry Now, of Peterborough, UK, and edited by Heather Killingray. The “Forward” to that book says it all: “Although we are a nation of poets we are accused of not reading poetry, or buying poetry books. After many years of listening to the incessant gripes of poetry publishers, I can only assume that the books they publish, in general, are books that most people do not want to read. Poetry should not be obscure, introverted, and as cryptic as a crossword puzzle: it is the poet’s duty to reach out and embrace the world. The world owes the poet nothing and we should not be expected to dig and delve into a rambling discourse searching for some inner meaning….” So there you have it. We are in complete agreement! In general, you will not have to dig or delve here in order to get some meaning or communication, and there might even be occasions where you feel that it is too much “in your face”. If that should happen: many apologies; but it will be intentional!! As you read through, you will realise that there is a great variety of subjects and ideas, with something of interest to everybody, and in many of the sonnets, haikuesqes or poems will be a message for you to consider, and perhaps take away with you? We should also say something about the pictures: you may be wondering about them. Except for ONE, each rose picture is an original amateur photo of a living rose. All are from our garden and unique to this publication, except the four “guest” roses from Australia (see later). If we have it correct, all the pictures are of different flowers, but if two of them should look similar, it will be because they are from the same rose bush. As beautiful as they are, it is not intended that the pictures take over but, as you turn the pages, we hope that they will help to brighten your day. A CHALLENGE: No prizes for finding the ONE picture of an ARTIFICIAL rose, but if you should find it there will be some evidence to confirm that!!! All of the other pictures are original photographs, except for five stock photographs from the internet which are included here under licence, and another four which are photographs of pre-existing public images. The sunset picture is a photograph of an original oil painting, with the artist’s consent. Hopefully, along the way, there will be the odd smile; nod of agreement or maybe the opposite; stimulated memory; interesting novelty, déjà vu and so forth. Before you actually begin, we make two requests of you: Firstly, please read each item, however long, at least twice, before passing on, because you will almost always find additional sense or meaning on the second reading; Secondly, while reading an item let your mind be free to create imaginary images – moving or still images - which are prompted by the words, that being partly what this is all about! For our part, we are hereby “reaching out to embrace the world”, as suggested above. Besides ideas and guidance, especially among the Haikuesqes, there is just one more gentle instruction for you in the final verse of the final poem; that being just before the invitation to locate your personal place on the Lob Index! Do you have the will-power not to turn to that page immediately, but to read through and wait until you reach that point??? Anyway, whatever you decide: ENJOY!!