Poetry

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A community to celebrate published and OC works of poetry.

Welcome to !poetry

Guidelines & Community Rules

In addition to the general rules of lemmy.world:

Published Poetry

1a: Poetry posts should include the title and the author, when the author is known.

O.C. Poetry

2a: Sharing original poetry is encouraged, but it must be preceded by the tag "[OC]."

2b: If an [OC] post is requesting feedback, it should also follow with the "[FB]" tag. It would look like the following example:
[OC] [FB] Nothing Gold Can Stay

Feedback

All feedback should be given in good faith.

3a: All [FB] requests should be met with comments constructive in nature. It is okay to dislike parts of a poem, but make sure to explain why you feel that way.

3b: Feedback does not need to be extraordinary in nature. Simply expressing how a work makes you feel is often enough.

3c: Use the honor system. When you receive good feedback, return it in kind to another author. Everyone appreciates knowing their work is being read and appreciated.

As this community develops, these guidelines may be adjusted.

Formatting Help
Work in progress

To create a line break, use two spaces at the end of a line.

To create empty space, type  . Use four of these at the beginning of a line to create a standard indent.

UPDATE:
Some methods of access do not format markdown correctly. I am currently testing various apps and web interfaces to see what does and does not retain formatting.

In the interim, it is encouraged to post text poetry as you normally would, but to include a link at the beginning or end of the post with access to a website or image that retains the formatting as intended.

Other Poetry Communities
Poetry lovers unite! In the style of the fediverse, multiple poetry communities have arisen, and will continue to rise. I will try to keep a list here of communities across instances that are worth checking out!

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

Scaldart

"How to Continue" by John Ashbery (self.poetry)

submitted 2 years ago by Scaldart to c/poetry

4 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Oh there once was a woman
and she kept a shop
selling trinkets to tourists
not far from a dock
who came to see what life could be
far back on the island.

And it was always a party there
always different but very nice
New friends to give you advice
or fall in love with you which is nice
and each grew so perfectly from the other
it was a marvel of poetry
and irony

And in this unsafe quarter
much was scary and dirty
but no one seemed to mind
very much
the parties went on from house to house
There were friends and lovers galore
all around the store
There was moonshine in winter
and starshine in summer
and everybody was happy to have discovered
what they discovered

And then one day the ship sailed away
There were no more dreamers just sleepers
in heavy attitudes on the dock
moving as if they knew how
among the trinkets and the souvenirs
the random shops of modern furniture
and a gale came and said
it is time to take all of you away
from the tops of the trees to the little houses
on little paths so startled

And when it became time to go
they none of them would leave without the other
for they said we are all one here
and if one of us goes the other will not go
and the wind whispered it to the stars
the people all got up to go
and looked back on love

— John Ashbery

top 4 comments

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[–] Crackhappy 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

As with all good poetry you can interpret this in a variety of ways depending on your disposition. It's lovely and thank you for sharing.

[–] Scaldart 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yes, absolutely! I'm curious, though, as to what your interpretation is.

[–] Crackhappy 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

At first I thought it was just a love poem, then I got deeper meaning out of it and thought it was about reflecting on your youth and life, but now I think it's about something else entirely but I'm not sure what. I'll have to come back and read it again later.

[–] Scaldart 2 points 2 years ago

So, something really interesting about this poet in particular is that he wrote his work almost with the sole intention of the musicality of the words. The content itself is so subjective to him that we'll likely never know the intent behind the words, but there is something beautiful about that approach. It's freeing, in a way. Of course, that's partially the value of poetry as a whole, but with some work it is necessary to grasp the context to get the full effect.