Poetry Makes Me Do Stupid Things

Description: ABOUT THAT . . . The Community Contributor Advised Fund has been established by Consulting With A Hart LLC to further the restoration and modernization of the media local to Southeast Colorado.

Let's talk about Poetry. The picture I'm trying to paint isn't pretty. The closest I can get to painting a pretty picture is expressing my self through poetry. And this is not like that. This is Journalism, it's supposed to be serious. If you know me then you know the last thing I am is serious. So it would make sense that I would fall off the wagon and land in poetry.

I usually did it when I was supposed to be learning. Open a sketch pad that is. When I had down time from tutoring, when I was eating lunch, while I was taking notes in class. Yup, I've never had a problem distracting my self with nonsense. In fact, if you ask one of the people I admire the most, Judy Jenkins, her description of me might be a scrawny scribbler of nonsense and dreams on the tops of desks during math class. She's never put it like that though. She probably found me to be a frustrating challenge of a student. I didn't pay attention in class, I didn't do the homework, and I got A's and high B's on the tests.

So, if you haven't figured it out. I'm not an A student unless I'm engaged. I have a drive for curiosity that convinces me to do stupid things. Maybe its a muse that compels me. Usually I stop my self before committing the act, but when I was young forget about it. Once I bent the doors backwards on my dad's project vehicle while he was on vacation. Both of them. I'm not going into further details here, mostly from embarrassment, but also because my mother challenged me to talk about it with the Southeast Antique Vehicle Club.

In adulthood I can sure get distracted cleaning my car more than it needs to be cleaned. I'm talking needless cleaning and polishing, I literally give her a “winter coat” of wax just so she can sit in the garage. Laser Red with black leather, the colors I wanted back in high school. See how easily it happens. Distractions. Wrapped in poetry. My original distraction. Was that a haiku? Not quite. See, I can't even fit the form. Poetry must equal laziness. You don't even have to use complete sentences.

But, to me poetry's versatility in communication can be so clean that it creates a false sense of eloquence for its author. You know, like Bonnie Grossen used to say, “Don't ever fall in love with your first draft.”

So, in adulthood I don't expect to find much escape through poetry. Instead I found it through work. You know the old adage, “if you do something you love for a living then you never have to work a day in your life.” No one I know ever told me that, but I heard it somewhere. It didn't have as much impact as when I heard that Plato said that poets are lazy and a detriment to society.

I'd believe that. When I think of hours wasted in higher education. And I think about it. I paid about $90 a month on my student loans for about 15 years. I spent half my time in class writing poetry. I still have it. It's mediocre at best. Had I applied my self to my studies I'd have put the pieces together much sooner in regards to generating my own happiness and not escaping to mediocre poetry.

Having regrets doesn't mean I still won't do stupid things. This whole process is crazy. I'm writing about my life experiences to convince my self and every one else that we can make the world a better place. It sounds like I'm trying to sell the world, but I'm not. I'd like to sell my community on achieving an ideal that requires they participate but I don't know how to do it.

I don't think I'm trying to sell anything at all. As much as I'm trying to put pieces of poetry together. So far I know it goes something like this . . .

Advertising should be

Funds enriching society

So Journalism can be

Sacrificed in her sleep

and fed raw to her community

Nah, that's not even close to a Haiku either. Like most poetry, it needs a re-write, but then again I tend to fall in love on first draft far too often, but that probably doesn't make me a detriment to society it just means I might be prone to doing stupid things.

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