another place

another place, another life, another book,
we go on without a return ticket, on the trail
of the vanished song, the elusive lines unlocking
a whole library of meaning, our lives shelved
in comprehensive order, for us who will arrive
clothed in dust and dusk, to sit at the appointed desks
and pore over the pages, search out the thread
stringing together all arrivals and departures
which our hands will tell, over and over,
as if in prayer, as if in peace.

- boey kim cheng

sure as hell brings back fond memories of school. trying to stay awake in lit class with perhaps the coolest teacher ever, mr smith (big ups to him). despite all the shit i pretty much enjoyed myself in SA i suppose. anyway, some twat told me that the technical aspects of a poem are the most vital part. (ie. order, rhyme). i say fuck that. of course there's no doubting the importance of the technical component when looking at poem since it does after all differentiate poetry from prose. however, i think most people overplay the importance of the technical aspects in poetry. the most important part i feel would be the emotions and feelings invoked on the part of the reader and whether or not the poet manages to get his intended message across as well as the language used (i know language is classified under technical but the twat was referring to the number of lines per stanza and rhyme) to convey his ideas. theres no point when a poem is meticulously arranged and ordered only for it to have no value to the reader at all. it just looks good. bear in mind that i have absolutely nothing against poems which are ordered and have a standard structure (some of the greatest poets use a standard structure for their work). its just that for most people they pay far too much attention to the rhyming words/number of lines per stanza instead of the idea behind the poem itself as well as the beauty of the words used and how the poem flows. a poem which doesn't have a rhyme scheme/common number of lines per stanza is immediately dismissed as inferior. kind of reflects on how shallow everyone is when it comes to appreciating literature doesn't it. oh yes, one more point would be that language (metaphors/allusions/etc.) in my opinion plays a large part in differentiating a mediocre poem from a great ones. language classifies under the technical aspect of poetry and although it might seem as though i'm contradicting myself here, i feel its as important as the idea behind the poem itself. what i'm trying to say is that poetry does not equal to rhyming words and a common set of lines per stanza. finally got my point across. i think. i wish people would wake up and realise how blind they've been all this while. i want to go to another place. the cauvery river maybe.