Mind Your Mechanics

The inner world doesn’t meet much respect – about poetry

“Poems, everybody! The lad here reckons himself a poet!”

Maybe you have seen the movie The Wall and remember this situation, where the not so pleasant teacher makes sure to ridicule the poor school boy who was quietly writing something in his copybook during the class. Poems, as it appeared.

The inner world doesn’t meet much respect. Nether in The Wall, nor in the real world. I guess that most people understand poetry as something that exists and must be accepted as part of the world and its history. We know how poetry was a way of writing that appeared very long ago – so long, that the ancient Greek stories, such as the Iliad and the Odyssey, were written as poems.

We know that there has been famous poets along the way through history, and we are in general not ridiculing those. And we consume poetry by large amounts in the shape of songs, part of many people’s everyday life, always on in the earbuds. Words in the thousands, shaped as poetry, accompanied by music.

In some parts of the world, it is even a fun and appreciated tradition to write a dedicated song for a party. Often not great poetry, that’s for sure, but appreciated just the same for the few minutes it takes for the gathered people to extend their good mood by singing it and, not the least, saluting, toasting, cheering, and drinking along the way.

Or how about the limericks or other small, funny verses, or the slightly more intellectual haiku, that some people are happy to share at proper occasions? Yes, we do appreciate poetry, as it is part of tradition in some specific situations in life.

But we do, in general, see poetry as inappropriate in most other situations. Few are the adverts that dare to squeeze in poetry, and when they appear, they mostly make fun of the idea. For instance, a person in the ad trying to write a naive poem for his loved one. And we laugh, due to the inappropriateness, the embarrassing situation he is in.

When any normal person in most other situations try to share their poetry, which they have secretly written – full of emotions, life observations, and personality – people around them will tend to push it all away and start ridiculing the poet, most often by words like those of the teacher I mentioned before, words that are meant to discourage the poet from believing that they are indeed a poet, to stop their efforts to express anything deep.

Why are we doing that?

Firstly, there is the aspect of moving away from your role in society, even your local role in the family or among friends. If you are not already recognized as a poet, but rather as the one who knows how to set up a new TV or install new software, then it would lead to a needed effort from your surroundings to begin recognizing you for more than they do already. And that is uncomfortable for them, it is rocking their boat, so their instincts immediately try to prevent it from happening, to bring everything back to status quo.

Secondly, there are some class-related stereotypes, seeing intellectual behaviour as an upper-class phenomenon not accepted in the working class. And yes, we do have those classes, even though we feel that we are mixed up and now all work at computers, all working with our minds. It makes us, the working class, focus on things, money, savings, more things, and all sorts of practical elements of life, while pushing the emotional aspects – and certainly the institutionalization of them – aside. We can accept the party song or the limerick at the pub, but that’s it. If someone tries to extend themselves into being a part-time or full-time poet, believing that they are entitled to be recognized as such, they are moving out of line and will get mocked back to their place.

Thirdly, there was in the post-war period an extreme focus on science and practical development, circling around various engineering areas, mechanics and electronics. Rockets to the moon, computers, TVs, mobile phones, the Internet, and many other practical, technical areas took seat in our minds. We have during and since that period shaped our ways of thinking around all such technical aspects, and we have come to believe that this is all that matters.

We really do live in a material world, a world of products and the fascination of technological development, but with limited respect for the mind – and in particular, very little respect for emotions. Emotions are even being treated as a “thing” that can be mastered through emotional intelligence. It is not something to feel, no-no, it is something to cynically observe and then deal with in a practical manner.

Poetry doesn’t fit into such a world-view. Poetry is freeing, it is exactly about breaking out of habitual thinking, letting emotions describe themselves in a way that requires the reader’s attention and open interest, the wish to try following the line of thought, sensing the emotion.

It is about trusting others. Trusting that their emotions are relevant for yourself. And trusting yourself in your ability to empathetically take in the expression, twist it and mix it with your own experience, and make it part of your own mind, creating your own inner poetry. Breaking free of your old thoughts. Then you, the reader, also become a poet.

Do you reckon yourself a poet?

This article was first published at From a writer’s perspective, a newsletter hosted on LinkedIn.