About Patriotism
Who is a real patriot in your eyes?
The one who loves his country
With all his soul,
Or the one who willingly arises
When the anthem is playing loudly
To prove his role?
You can be proud of your nationality.
But can you cross that thin line
And belittle other systems?
Can you approve hatred and brutality?
Or maybe put an equal sign
Between it and the racism?
Maybe I am too young to judge
But no one can reprove me
In my mind.
Not one person can hold a grudge,
And make other people bent the knee
Since patriotism and tolerance are one.
About Love
Sometimes people leave without saying good-bye
Without regret or pain
Forever.
They wake up in the morning with the thought
But not of you, of rain
Falling from the sky.
You know what? People leave without a trace.
There is no forgiveness or tears
In their world.
And you are left in pieces,
Locked in a room without a key
Under the blanket, hurt.
Learn to let go and to forget
The words, the feelings, smells.
It’s all in vain.
Your world is not broken, so find the key.
Go out and
Fly away.
Writing poetry is a talent very few possess, regardless of whether the rhyming or free form is used. The poems above were an attempt to follow a stylistic choice of John Berryman. In the beginning, it seemed that not using a stringent form would make the process of writing easier. However, it is far from being the truth, since creating the poem’s flow by using just the pace and rhythm is quite challenging.
The first poem is written in three stanzas, six lines each. The lines’ size is different: the third and the last lines are much shorter than the rest. This form helps in creating a pattern and makes it easier to digest the poem. Rhyming is used as well; however, the structure is not conventional or stringent, like the one used by Robert Frost. The first line rhymes with the fourth, the second with the fifth, and the third with the sixth. This approach is used to make the poem more structured and easier to follow. Some of the lines end with question marks, therefore, connecting the sixains. The concept of patriotism runs through every line of the poem to keep the readers’ attention and place emphasis on the topic.
The second poem also follows the Berryman’s formal convention of free form; however, it is more erratic than the first one. It consists of 3 sixains as well, but there is less rhyming. If there are three rhymes per every six lines in the first poem, the second poem only has two or even one per sixaine. Repetitions of words and short phrases are used to connect the idea of the poem. Besides, the poem’s flow is based on contrasting to a certain extent, with the first sixaine being quite dramatic and negative and the last one providing some sort of reconciliation of the feelings.
Writing these two poems was challenging but also quite rewarding. One may think that if rhyming is not necessary, the process of writing is easy. However, by not employing the stringent form and conventional structure, making the poem easy to read and understand becomes much more difficult. For someone who is not very creative with words, writing poems using John Berryman’s formal convention can be a good practice of capturing poetic ideas in a specific structured form.