a bone of contention

 

a

   bone 

     of 

            contention 

~ poetry does not exist ~

it’s a social construct 

a way of writing that 

in its given mores confirms and conforms to a convention

that is acknowledged by readers and writers 

as being poetry

it’s a way of writing that a writer chose

that successfully moved emotion in a given direction

a mode of expression that was copied and was called poetry

by all who copied the copy and copied the copiers

~ poetry does not exist ~

if a way of writing is called poetry

move on from that conviction

for it is dead or dying 

fall back deep inside yourself 

look for the singular spark

that illuminates a thought

grab that and smash it on the page

shattering convention into ten thousand shards

each with the ability to prick the blood of thought

or the long licked lemon smiles of sucked salt

~ for poetry does not exist ~

they are legion

the recognised and analysed methods of writing poetry

if you know any you will recognise that

the more you know and can recruit in your work

(why work is another question for parentheses)

the more you can conform to or break in contention of the convention

then the more what you write will be recognised as poetry

~ but poetry does not exist ~

outside of language is another language 

to see it and to use it is to move a reader to learn it

to be moved by it is a subliminal nationalism

a belonging to an irrational nation state of mind

literally cry to others

i have found a new poet writing in a new poetic style

a poem as profound as any poet has ever written

he / she (or AI) is writing true poetry

~ and yet  poetry does not exist ~

for all is displayed on the gallery walls

as the moderns jump ship

to swim to a new volcanic island

a barrier reef of broken pens around an atoll

seething calmness all is harboured safe

way out yonder over the event horizon

where no boats have ever sailed

for fear of the storms of contention that 

convention dictates thus

~ there poetry does not exist ~

take pangea 

split by tectonics into nation states

poems presented at every dimension

from one to five

must be poetry for look at the shape

of it it must be it innit

~ there you see ~poetry does exist ~

i never doubted it for a minute

but now you do

and come to think of it

so do i do

~ if poetry does not exist then what would you call all of this ~