Persona Poetry/Juggernaut!

I am not a 'poet,' persay, although I dabble in the art from time to time. What I like about poetry is also the most intimidating: its lack of rules. Also, it is hard for me to determine just what 'good poetry' is. I've taken my fair share of poetry courses while at Stanford and, whether workshop or lecture, people could agree that one poem is brilliant while the next is trash...and they'll look the same to me! Sometimes I'd wonder if 'good poetry' (kind of like writing sometimes) was more defined by the authors than by the actual writing. I truly thought that if you would take a 'shitty' poem and slap Robert Frost's name on it, people would call it a masterpiece. They'd take the elements that make it so shitty and analyze it, saying that the author deliberately wrote it in a way that seemed to lack quality as a sort of commentary, therefore making the piece and his writing ability even more amazing! But I guess, as I've said, that this can be applied to other types of writing, but with the lack of rules in poetry, it just seems like anything goes.

When it all comes down to it, the question, I think, should be about what kind of emotions and reactions are pulled from the reader by the poetry and then you can measure its personal value then. I say personal because if I cannot understand a Robert Frost poem or extract from it all the imagery and metaphors that others can then the poem is dead to me. Whereas, on the flip side, I might be able to connect on some unthoughtof level with the simplest of poems.

I just wanted to background a little bit some of the things I feel about poetry. I think I just wrote some mumbo-jumbo that poured from my mind, but isn't that a kind of poetry in itself?

To get to the topic of this blog post, in one of my poetry classes the assignment was to write a poem from the perspective of someone else (a persona poem). I decided to write about my roommate and fraternity brother. Because of the judgment that may seem to shine forth from this piece, he shall remain nameless. But I thought it was an interesting exercise (if not a little entertaining, especially when I showed it to my roommate) that made poetry writing, for me, just a little bit easier. Sometimes it may be hard to write true to yourself, as we all have hesitance of self-criticism, or, more accurately, making our self-criticism accessible by others. But by pretending to be someone else as you write (I'm just now realizing that the personal posts in my blog have reached some type of theme: becoming someone else when you write....sounds like it would make for a great novel, huh? Too bad Stephen King already did it) you can open your imagination up to a new sect of experiences but also apply criticism (or praises) more readily to those thoughts, mannerisms, moralities, etc, etc.

So, and without further ado, here is my persona poem. My roommate's nickname was, at his peak, the Juggernaut! That and this internet phenomenon inspired this piece.

Juggernaut!

Author: Justin Key

I am the Juggernaut

Bitch

Women flock to me

My fanclub of willingness

All at my disposal.

I am unstoppable.

If sex were a war

Then my army would be undefeated

300 Spartans of Love-

Making

Oh

Before I forget

Please don’t leave your panties

On my floor

Again

Don’t cry

There is hardly any time for tears

And the sooner you smile

The sooner we can do it all

Again

The Juggernaut forgets what love is

Only lust

No pain (except for that good pain)

Only pleasure

I am the Juggernaut

Bitch

It’s not really that hard to understand

Now come, sit next to me

Its OK

You’re in good hands

Just please

Please

Be out by morning

PS: I'm afraid if I continue giving in to my urge to post from my archive of work so quickly, I will soon run out! But, new material everyday, but I guess I also don't want to put it all up for grabs, eh?