David Isaac Beckom, originally from Pittsburgh, PA, has resided in Cork City, Ireland for the past 24 years. His work as a poet and writer has been featured in newspapers, and he has performed readings in cities including Cork, Belfast, Pittsburgh, Dublin, New York, L.A., and Denver. In Denver, he was a columnist for the city’s largest minority-owned newspaper. His short story, “The Silencing of the Poet,” earned a Certificate of Distinction from The League of Poets in 2022. Despite his diverse writing accomplishments, Beckom prefers to identify as a poet rather than a writer.
What is a Poet
By David Isaac Beckom
What is a Poet, what are the standards or qualifications necessary to be called a Poet? Anyone can write a poem, a five-year-old can write a poem.
Roses are red, Violets are blue.
Mom says get off the couch.
And go to the garden.
And pick up the dogs poo!
Anyone can sing; Happy Birthday To You, but that doesn’t make me a Singer or a five-year-old a Poet. Because I have published a book of poetry does that make me a Poet? Anyone and I mean anyone can write and publish a book!
When I hear people being introduced at readings and they talk about their Chat Book or their recent book, as if having written a book is a badge of honour or a validation that somehow this makes you a Poet, to me this is questionable. Because one has published a book, does not make you a Poet, a Writer yes, a Poet maybe.
So, what is a Poet?
Think of looking in the Want Ads of the Newspaper, the section for employment and search for.
Poet Wanted!
In passing I see Lifeguard wanted, I stop because I can swim, as I read further it states must be certified in First Aid. I can put a band- aid on my finger, and I know how to get a bag of peas from the freezer, bump on the head, sorted!
Next it reads, must be trained and certified in the use of the defibulator. Well, I watch ER every week, it looks easy enough to me “clear”!
Do you think I should call myself a Lifeguard?
Do you think they are going to give me the job?
No way;
Because standards and qualifications matter and no, I am not referring to degrees!
Now I see Poet wanted.
Must be more Poet than Academic.
Must have the gift of language.
Must be capable through the use of language to express complex feelings and evoke deep emotions.
Must be fluent in verse, rhyme and rhythm.
An experienced imagination is paramount.
Must have an understanding of the significance of words.
Must be completest in subject matter.
Must know the difference between Poetry and Prose!
Prose is not Poetry Period!
Saying prose-poem is like saying;
It’s a hot cold day.
Or I saw a tall-short man on the bus.
Or I have a skinny fat girlfriend!
Or I saw dog-cat walking down the street.
The term prose poem only exists in the mind of a Writer.
There is narrative poetry, epic poems and others. But they are poems because they are written by Poets using the standards of poetry.
Free verse Is not prose, it may be excused from rhyme and meter but it too must respect the standards that govern poetry.
Dictation, imagination, repetitions, creative use of language with imagery, simile, stanza, rhythm and lineation. Compression is a key ingredient in creating a poem, all poems.
Completest in vision searching for the emotions and feelings, which like rain to a flower nourish the poem. Strengthening the poem to the point of harvest. Where it’s message is visible and accessible to the reader. They get it!
As a Poet it is my duty, my responsibility that the language I select is viable to the reader. Think of viable as directions, my language, my words must guide the reader through the emotions and feelings within the poem. The goal of the Poet is to see that the reader of a poem recognises and has empathy for the language the poet uses.
Robert Frost “It is our business to give people the thing that will make them say,” oh yes I know what you mean. It is never to tell them something they don’t know, but something they know and hadn’t thought of saying. It must be something they recognize.” To aid in recognition a poem should not be bespoke, not for one or a select few but for many.
John Keats “Poetry should surprise by a fine excess, and not by Singularity it should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts and appear almost a Remembrance.”
A poem is not a Riddle!
I’m concerned about the future of the poem and the art-form of poetry. In the past five decades the poem has seen the onslaught of new technologies, the computer, the smart T.V. and the mobile phone.
The worldwide pandemic of Covid has exposed poetry and put it in harm’s way, put it in danger, great danger! By creating a plague so powerful and universal with the potential of mass destruction a virus called, Zoom!
Zoom has created a gateway, a bridge, a platform, where Writers, Content Providers, Trolls, Master Degrees, P.H.Ds, Wannabes, the lonely and unseen, have the opportunity to over throw the Poet, capture the throne and kidnap poetry, neglected on its own.
Since when has deceit, lies and the need to patronise people become the norm. Honesty, candour, and truth, now so often ignored, replaced with pretentious rhetoric. Constructive criticism and the reality of poor execution are forbidden conversations. Everyone is a Poet, every poem is great, fantastic, everyone lineup, no pushing and publish your book!
Let’s dilute and dilute and keep diluting this art form called Poetry from a precious wine to water on the bathroom floor! From poetry to prose to the spoken word, to a cluster of emotions created by A.I. next free verse will be a comic book! But it will be a great book! Fantastic and the Poet marvellous simply marvellous!
Well, this is not a poem but prose, and a vision of a dangerous curve in the road. For the future of the Poet there are dark days ahead. As for the poetry itself I am truly scared, in a matter of decades it will be no longer fed, because its dead! Prose wears the crown and with a bloody hand, holds the Kings head, forgotten and unread!
The Galway Review 