Poems give me the “ick” AIBU?

[Nevergotdivorced]

I saw an estrangement thread on Gransnet, the OP had sent her estranged daughter a card with a poem she had composed.

My immediate thought was NO!

I then thought I was being a bit harsh and some people would find it moving.

I think it’s really cringy.

This.

Also, AI generated shite = YANBU

Mostly very cringe.

However my dad (Very much not a poem writing sort) wrote me a poem a few years ago that was mostly moaning about me asking if he can fix my car but then the final line he said it was a privilege that he secretly treasures and I cry just thinking about it.

so I think the person themselves need to not be cringey and it just needs to hit the right note

I’m with the likes of Coleridge and Blake, poetic genius is a manifestation the divine imagination.

Twee poems (which usually make appearances at funerals and weddings) fucking awful

poems composed by loved ones - Christ alive, shoot me now.

I have made it clear if any of the latter two categories appear at my funeral I’ll be coming back to haunt them!

How beautifully put!

Oh Dear God, noooooo!!

I am cringing for you…how awful!

Depends what you mean by ‘poems’. The sort of corny verse some people like to write would make me shudder, I’m afraid.

I quite like a bit of well written poetry.

But writing a poem to an estranged family member is bizarre.

It could also be considered manipulative by some.

I went through a phase whilst in the midst of my divorce where I started writing poetry. Cathartic at the time, makes me cringe inside out now, though 😅

I also dyed my hair red, got a piercing and painted my bedroom bright pink - walking cliché. I'm glad to report I worked through it and am now a fully functioning adult again 🤗

I used to work with a woman who thought she was a poet. She wasn’t

If anyone left, she would compose a ‘poem’ and write it in their leaving card. They were beyond terrible, but everybody would tell her how good they were so she kept doing it.

Now actual poetry, I love. I chose English literature for my undergrad degree purely because of poetry. I must have a hundred by rote. I also try and read one a day and I annoy my children by reciting a poem on any occasion. (Just to them, I’m not a twat.)

I get what you mean 😄

I dunno if anyone has seen Two Doors Down, where Gordon writes a poem for his dad on father's day. Super icky 😄

Although I did love Wilfred Owen at school, and would cry thinking about the poor soldiers 🥺

He’s inspired. There’s a good one about a tennis match played by a couple where the words alternate across the pages, like a match, and it’s about the distance that remains between the couple when they go home.

I often think about his I wanna be leader poem:

I wanna be the leader
I wanna be the leader
Can I be the leader?
Can I? I can?
Promise? Promise?
Yippee I'm the leader
I'm the leader

OK what shall we do?

Roger McGough

There are some poems that I’ll always love, but most, even in literary magazines, make my toes curl.

In the context you've described it, yes I can feel the cringe a bit; not sure why. Probably because the relationship is estranged, it feels off the mark, I imagine it being really kiss ass in an ott way.

However..... I have written poems for people I really care about. I really like writing poems, funny ones for good mates and I've written poems for important people. The poem would be a reflection of how I feel about them and usually makes them feel pretty appreciated. That's the point for me - it's creating something that sounds good, has a nice rhyme yet reflects the great qualities of the people I wrote them for. They'll probs never receive or hear anything dedicated to them, their wonderfulness, attributes, gifts etc; that feels like a huge gift.

The thought of standing up reading a poem out in a serious way does feel ick; I get that 😁

Although not apparent in my writing on MN, writing and poetry is the only subject I was always quite good at.

Isn't poetry like any form of writing - some resonates with you and you love it, some you can appreciate as 'good' but it doesn't do anything for you, and some is just awful and you'd rather tear out your own eyes than read it.

So it's really individual (I like poetry but not ALL poetry, obviously).

I love “ please Mrs Butler”

As pp have said i generally like poems written by poets but not home made poems by people who don't really know what they are doing.

I realky dislike the Metaphysical poets though, having had to study them for English Literature A level many years ago.

I enjoy listening to Poetry Please on Radio 4. The poetry is read by people who KNOW how to read poetry.

The problem is couplets as a format rarely work except for certain specific cases (children's poems or humour) yet most amateur poetry seems to be that - or pretentious "spoken word" poems that have their own problems.

I’m the same. I love reading anything but poems. I love rap but proper poems make me cringe. It’s even worse when someone reads one out loud.

I love hearing great lyrics in music; which I see as it's own form of poetry.

I may set off ick attacks, but I absolutely love The Smiths, the lyrics are fantastic to me, so poetic and beyond the really boring basic simplistic lyrics of so much popular music.

I imagine many rappers are incredibly poetic. I should look at some lyrics. My teen used to love Juice world; I thought his lyrics were so wonderfully poetic. I don't get cringe from this 🤷🤗

Four Weddings scene. John Hannah doing the Auden. Gorgeous setting. Gorgeous rhotic accent. Gorgeous acting.

”…juicy bone”

instant bumhole clench.

I hate the ones frequently recited at funerals, including, sorry StormyLandCloud, the one you mentioned ‘I did not die etc.’. Yes, you damn well did.

But your Cats one is brilliant. I am now trying to work out how it could be fitted into my funeral.

I also hate the awful one about only being in the next room. DH told me on no account to be under that misapprehension when he goes.

I said something similar on a ‘funeral readings’ thread and got my head bitten off. No need to re-bite it here, please.

Depends on the quality of the writing surely?

I like some poems but I can't say I like poetry as a thing. I am this emoji with a lot of poems (and song lyrics) =😬

I knew people would start putting poems up, presumably in the hope we'd all be converted. It won't work, because there is in fact only one poem that everyone should learn, and it's this masterpiece:

The boy stood on the burning deck
His pocket full of crackers
A spark leapt up his trouser leg
And blew away his knackers.

Everything else pales into insignificance.

A lot of it is so pretentious isn't it? I love a bit of Dorothy Parker - no beating around the bush, very succinct. And silly rhyming ones for kids - please Mrs Butler is still my favourite collection because it just nails the reality of primary school.

i think poetry can be absolutely beautiful.
ts eliot's the wasteland is my favourite, it is so moving.
I also love the raven, I love the way it can be read so, i dunno, urgently? I can't explain it very well.

Well written poetry is amazing.

people coming up with daft little rhymes is not the same thing at all. I wouldn't even class them as poetry.