On Poetry

Widely considered to be the “choose-your-own-adventure novel of syntax,” poetry comes from the Greek poiein - “to make” - which is (scholastically speaking) useless. Etymological frustrations aside, poetry is a bit like porn, in that one knows it when one sees it, and also like porn in that almost anyone can make some and post it online.

If words are weapons (as poet Eminem suggests), poetry is an exquisitely complex surgical instrument that can be used to perform exquisitely complex surgeries, or as a doorstop. It is at once less tactically constrained by and more indebted to the power of language, and is, at its best, dialogical (every self-respecting assailant requires a victim).

Of course, poetry needn’t be poetic (and often isn’t). Ultimately, one thing is certain: poetry may not always be better than prose, but that which is poetic is always better than that which is prosaic.