Read Me A Song!

 Read me a song and I’ll sing you a poem! 

Some folks tend to get confused when I refer to my poems as my songs. What’s the big diff? A bigger nose… smaller toes? All upon the same beautiful body…?

The lines between poetry, literature, and music tend to share the same fabric, only to create different colored clothing for what seems to be the same purpose… expression and entertainment.

Ray Charles was once asked what he liked about country music. He said, “The stories man, the stories!” Isn’t that what poets do? Don’t we write stories as well? Our poems are not linear in terms of chronology, plot, and character development…. yet they do share story characteristics. 

Stories, song lyrics, poems… there’s some bouncy correlations there, are there not?

Then there’s the music itself… expressions of light and shade… crescendos and quiet movements…. communicating emotions with notes that move our spirit and fire our imaginations. Piano concertos, blazing guitar solos, roaring horn sections, ukuleles (yes… ukuleles!!!) … they ALL evoke emotions of some sort! They soothe, excite, dance, reflect cultures… Is that not what poems do?

So why are poems not as popular as pop music or the latest on big time best seller lists? Why are there not coffee houses and auditoriums bursting at the seams with poets singing their songs? Websites and merchandise going into orbit with success and renown poets of golden recognition being knighted and decorated by governments around the world? Is poetry really that underground?

Yes it is.

Then why are you reading this?! 

I have a feeling it’s because you care. You care about words like expression, perspective, and emotion. You long to fire your imagination and stimulate senses beyond the physicality world. You want to be a part of something bigger than most of the drivel you hear on popular radio or read in magazines rife with nonsense about this and nonsense about that. 

You want focus. You want quality. You want diversity. You want POETRY!!!!

Now there is quality music and books out there... There are beautiful manifestations of art in so many forms… sculpture, architecture, even murals extemporaneously spray painted on box cars or on the walls of inner city building…  even to the commissioned immaculate variety. But is poetry? No! 

Poetry represents a valued medium that has every right to be right up there with the popular celebrations of the works of Michelangelo, Mozart, or the Beatles. Bob Dylan’s songs were poetry in themselves, which brings us right back to where we started… what’s the big diff?

For me… there is none.

Please feel free to share your ideas in the comments below. I would LOVE to hear some of your thoughts on this subject! 

More to come…

Matthew Elmore