Not Quite National Poetry Month but “Good Enough”
Diamond Enough
After yesterday’s post concerning the relatively higher payback for posts about Robert Pattinson, I am returning to poetry. This is, in part, because the Academy of American Poets announced that it is extending its April program of daily emailed poems for the entire year. (I figure if the Academy of American Poets can post a poem a day for longer than a month, I can too.)
So here’s another draft poem (written on the morning subway). Any suggestions for improvement that you may send are seriously considered and greatly appreciated.
Good Enough
Why is it that they,
the amorphous they,
can never say
you’re good enough
well enough
for you to feel, in fact,
good (enough);
not perhaps like a
diamond in the rough,
much less a diamond buffed,
just not ‘not good enough’.
What can they say
to allay
that bay of inadequacy,
that convenient, if unsafe, harbor,
built-in, if empty, larder?
It sounds like a game,
but if words can tame pain,
rhyme act as anodyne,
it’s worth a shot,
would mean a lot,
maybe, for a short time, enough.
(PS – note that an earlier version of this post incorrectly named the Academy of American Poets. Sorry, Poets! Their emailed poems are a feature called “poem-a-day”. )
Explore posts in the same categories: poetry, Uncategorized, writing exercisesTags: Academy of American Poets, draft poem, manicddaily, Manicddaily pencil drawing, ManicDDaily poem, ManicDDaily poetry, National Poetry Month, poem about insecurity, poetry, Poetry exercise, Stress, subway, writing exercise
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ManicDDaily 
May 4, 2010 at 9:26 pm
As I read it, the first stanza stands on its own, it’s good enough. I do realize that cutting the rest would change your meaning. But my reaction rests on formal grounds…the repetitions of “enough” and its rhymes make me feel a strong cadence when that stanza ends.
In classical music some composer make problems for conductors because overly emphatic internal cadences cause unwanted applause.
I hear here a contemporary “poetry slam” sound. Wrong? If so, your first experiment with such?
I think I also prefer just a bit of it, as a sly
game that resonates ironically with your subject,
to more of it that would really place this effort
*within* that genre.
May 4, 2010 at 11:04 pm
Hi. Didn’t think of it as “slam” style at all, though may make more sense taking it in that direction. I wasn’t reading it aloud that way though. Maybe first stanza is enough; as it definitely goes in different direction after that, becoming more like writing, etc.
I’m not sure it’s worth re-writing! Though I’m a bit too close to it (in time) to really assess.
May 6, 2010 at 2:27 am
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Happy Thursday!
May 7, 2010 at 10:52 am
very beautiful.
May 7, 2010 at 11:32 am
Thanks, and thanks for reading.