The Science of Evolution: Poetry Edition #1

At Just after 4pm today, the online poetry repository known as Ink, Sweat and Tears published this poem:

It wasn't written for IS&T. In an attempt to show my working for this and use honesty as a superpower, I wrote it for the Verve Poetry Press' 'Love' Contest. When it was finished I looked at it and instinctively knew it had a literally zero chance of success, simply because this is a graphic. It is saved as a .png file and was exported as a PDF. It would be unpublishable anywhere at present.

I am adult enough to completely understand that 'poetry' has a ruleset that, for at least 95% of the time, NEEDS to remain intact. The other 5% only comes when you've done all the hard work, published a few pamphlets, had a collection done and dusted and maybe been nominated for an award or two. This isn't poetry like all other poetry, even though it's meant to exist on a page.

It is colouring outside incredibly well-defined and intractable lines.

So, why send something to a contest when you're 100% confident you'll fail? Because that has to be the point at certain key junctures of an artistic career. I know how powerful Content Warning is, and that's now been borne out by someone else deciding the poem works. A complete stranger has done just that, but it's not only that which is different this time. Here's a poem that both my kids and my husband recognise as powerful and vital. That counts for a LOT.

My relationship with art and poetry is already expanding: I have a project about to move toward completion with someone on the Art Trail, which we'll talk about in a lot more detail in July. I submitted another piece of work that came from the same period at the end of last year to my City's main Gallery Space last month in the hope they may pick me up as an 'Emerging Creative' initiative (which I am) and allow me to make a four page visual poem into a set of A2 canvasses.

If that doesn't come to pass, I will make it happen myself next year.

So, here we are, with an incredible amount of work sitting in limbo, and no real sense 0f whether the traditional methods of being recognised even function correctly any more. I have not desire whatsoever to be a 'famous' poet but I have a lot that I'd like to be heard ahead of what seems to be a lot of noise and posturing from certain sectors of my industry. Not everyone is a baddie, but as we discovered last week, some think they absolutely know better.

The future should be as diverse and quirky as I know this community to be. Content Warning has already been a major lightbulb moment for me. This afternoon I will get to see if that is the case for other people. Before then I have some stuff that needs posting, a meeting with a venue owner, and some much-needed chores to finish. I wonder if Douglas Dunn has ever had to worry about his washing... I think there might be a poem in that, you know...

Let's see if anyone else reacts to this poem, if at all ^^