F**k the structure

~ Purpleanais

alan-in-les-liaisons-dangereuses-alan-rickman-16043367-500-337

I don’t see old-fashioned poetry
she said…

Poetry, prose, it’s all the same
I replied

Don’t come to me for any of that stiff upper lip stuff, I abhor it, wouldn’t know how to do it, I despise norms and forms – fuck the struc-ture.

When I read,

I want to feel the sun, I want to fear the shadows,

I need to see the trees leaning in, close, too close so I can’t breathe…

show me the depth of the dark, how far does it go…the light, is it blinding or merely hopeful,

were you screaming when you wrote it? Crying, laughing, what was it?

If you were bored, I’ll be too. Show me your heart, exposed, magnified by the glass.

Push me to the edge, step by step if you like…or fast,

will you save me or will I fall?

I have to feel raw, powerful, weak, choked, and any of the things in between.

It’s like sex, after I’m done with you I should desperately need a smoke (even though I quit)

You need to make me feel something

The number of people I’ve read over the years, offering structure and intricate wordplay…with otherwise sterile content.

No, no and no.

It’s not my thing, and please don’t criticise me for it.

I write what I am, it’s all I can do and fair enough if you don’t like it. Just…don’t try to change me or make me feel small somehow – each to their own.

Image credit: Alan Rickman in “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” @Fanpop

65 thoughts on “F**k the structure”

  1. Powerful stuff, Nathalie. I agree. I don’t like convention. I hated music education because they established walls of what I could and couldn’t do. So I left and write what I feel now, and not because the instructor told me what the formula was. Don’t write it because it’s perfect iambic pentameter. Write it because the words can’t be contained any longer.

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    1. Agreed completely! I know some people love the structure and work really well with it but I find it so confining. It’s just not for me. One of my fellow Master’s student obviously isn’t a fan of my writing, which is fair enough but I don’t want to be constantly criticised for it.
      Yep, music, painting, whatever, it’s all the same. I love what you said: “write it because the words can’t be contained any longer” 😍

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  2. Nat, this is poetry at its best. You are not holding anything back.
    You are expressing exactly what us poets are feeling and have been feeling.
    Like I say to everyone: ‘In poetry there are no limits, poetry is anything you want poetry to be.’

    Excellent poem my friend. 🙂

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      3. Don’t ever let anyone criticize your work. Always defend your writing. People are different. The old school or new school people are in divided. Some still stay the traditional form of poetry. Others just don’t care and want to create poetry of their own style and be original. It’s always good to evolve and try many different style of work. 🙂

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      4. I agree completely, Charlie. Criticising each other’s work is part of the requirement on the Writing Master’s I’m doing…and I don’t actually mind…it’s just this one person keeps attacking my style which is ridiculous because it’s not something I’m going to change – not productive.

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      5. If you want to prove this person wrong. Show him or tell him to read ‘William Burroughs’. I recommend to him/or her, ‘Nova Express’, or ‘The Soft Machine’. Trust me Nat, Burroughs was just like us, misunderstood. If person still doesn’t understand about different styles of writing. Then ignore them. You do what you do best and here on WordPress, we’re all here to fully support you and your writing. 🙂 You are such an intelligent person.

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  3. I had trouble in the beginning with composing poetry … feeling like it always had to rhyme. One night, after a frustrating day, a little too much to drink, and an argument, I wrote a piece that has become my favorite and not a rhyme in sight! It’s inspiration, emotion and choosing the perfect words. Boom! 😎

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    1. Yes, Meg! Exactly! I’ve read some of your poetry and it’s really good. Link me up to the piece you’re talking about.
      There are people who write stuff that LOOKS beautiful but then I read it and think: “dude, I haven’t got a clue what you’re talking about. Whatever you were trying to say, it got lost in your pomposity” 😝

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      9. As you just saw yourself, the useless translators can’t even get it anywhere near right, so he’d have to be at the level of a native French speaker. Is he? If so, I’m impressed.

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      12. I put them in French Immersion school full-time in kindergarten and that went all the way through high school. Also had native born French TA living in home

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  8. Manon. Give me their address I will send them a flaming letter about how CONVENTION is but ONE form and that form is but one address in the language of poetry. As Modigliani says, the purpose of poetry is to feel life itself, any STALE BASTARD who condemns you in ANY WAY for your literal passion for life, is merely jealous that your words LIVE whilst they can only write inside the narrowest of confines. Funnily enough this reminds me, the person who quit talking to me liked to write Haiku nothing wrong with that, but once they asked why I did not like writing in forms, I told them I had done it many years ago and found it boring (truth) though I admired it in others (sometimes) but mostly my taste veered toward the unform. They took it as an insult and started writing more and more haiku at which point I realized yeah I really don’t ‘feel’ a haiku that much, no offense on the millions who do but it’s not my thing, I like it thick and real and meaty. Anyway just shows you that those who say those things are really insecure as the person you’re dealing with. It is their emptiness and absence of passion they cannot stand.

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    1. Haha we have to criticise each other’s work on the Master’s. It’s an actual requirement and it’s fine because I welcome constructive criticism but this one woman really has it in for me…I get my writing isn’t for everyone, I’m fine with it…but she harps on about the same thing every fucking time! I’m not magically going to start writing conventionally just because my lack of form offends her (greatly, apparently)
      I’m with you on Haiku, I tried it for a laugh once and funnily enough I found it incredibly easy to write them (it is a very simple thing but I thought I’d have problems even with that!) but it was indeed boring. (For me)
      When I looked for *that* person’s blog, as I told you the other day, her latest post was a fucking haiku haha
      Writing wise, she wasn’t even fit to hold a candle near you while you write – yeah I disturbed that little idiom because I like doing that! Also, what I just said: #Fact
      It’s good to have the queen in my corner, you know how much it means to me so I won’t go on and on about it. MUST add: your writing is reaching new heights. I swear you’re getting more skilled every time I visit.
      And that’s not all about the fact your writing speaks to me so much emotionally, it’s just the way you arrange those words just perfectly so…and they drip off the tongue like melted dark chocolate…and reach inside the reader and create their own vortex. I mean…respect.

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      1. ha ha ha ha! I did the same thing! Plus agreed, I found it simple and boring. No I agree, constructive CONSTRUCTIVE NOT BITCHY AND VAPID criticism is GREAT (notice how it’s a woman doing this? JEALOUS JEALOUS JEALOUS!) I had a woman in my MA program she was an albino it was actually a hillarious surreal story, she was jealous I guess? Anyway she would do all these tormenting things and then one day I got my fortune told and they said ‘beware of the white witch 1966 and that’s when she was born and I died laughing … you do have a queen of thorns in your corner and she will STAB anyone who dares to claim your freedom. #fact.

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      2. Hahaha love that story! Ever wonder what happened to her? She’s probably a dried husk of jealousy by now. I’m so over people who try to destroy other’s hard won and hard fought for confidence. Fuck them.

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      3. Okay I confess being a NOSY PARKER whose past is never quite gone, I did google her about 3 years ago and found out RANDOM she is a marathon runner and a psychotherapist (SCARY) as well as still being a total ASS. I recall she thought Liv Tyler was the bad-ass and she kept saying things about liking girls with English accents etc, and at the same time she loathed me, it was funny, like a really tilted fucked up dance that only envious women seem capable of. Agreed, I’m so over it too – and so many people do that especially women to women it’s fucked.

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  9. “BTW I want to feel the sun, I want to fear the shadows, / I need to see the trees leaning in, close, too close so I can’t breathe… / show me the depth of the dark, how far does it go…the light, is it blinding or merely hopeful,” lovely lines. I think this sums up my desire poetry-wise. I was listening to London Grammar and I just recalled being that girl who would fling herself about wildly dancing for hours, feeling so passionate without needing anyone or anything and I don’t know where she is, maybe still dancing in the dark but you Manon, you will always be the Stevie Nicks in that regard, and that is what people envy and cannot handle, that nothing can make you give up your spirit and if anyone ever tries, I will chase them down.

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  10. I don’t mind critique if it’s helpful. But most times I will still continue on my own creative path. “A camel is a horse designed by a committee.” I have no photos of camels but quite a few of horses! 🙂

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    1. Yes! I think it’s up to us to choose how we want to write…there is also what comes naturally…and structure doesn’t come to me naturally. I don’t see why my creativity should be stifled just because *some* object to my writing style.

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