with only slight exaggeration

Was it entirely necessary to double-space it?

In junior school

they said that a poem should rhyme

though admitted
even then
that they don't have to,

at least, not all the time.

In a similar vein,

they taught us little about meter

by
merely
advising
syllaballic
enumeration

without
even
mention
of the
iamb
nor the
trochee

and likewise
they never
advised us
concerning
the usage
or form of
amphibrachs.

A rough guide seemed to be
at least, it seemed to me,
that the number of beats on each line
Should be roughly comparable
if not completely identical
and most lines would then end
with a rhyme.


This unsophisticated learning

was, in secondary school,

barely expanded:

Alongside the most cursory explanation
of the rules of the language
of this nation
(we learned far more of tenses and cases
when learning of the languages of foreign climes)
there was the barest introduction
of linguistic instruction
or the alternative construction
of what might be called Proper poems,

not just

simple rhymes.


With fancy . . spacing and
. . placement

intended to

add

. weighting

to otherwise

. . (potentially)
. . . banal
. . . . statements

Typography stilting the natural
flow of words
Curious choices
of places to leave spaces
and start
new
lines

Unless it was the poem's author who was reading
The stop-start manner and the irregular
slowing
and speeding-up
bore little resemblance
to normal spoken language...

Likewise the simple flows of prose could be

stopped

and started

by the breakage of the text onto many
many
rows...

It's maybe just my weighted perception
but whether or not a poem is the stated intention
when some writing is presented
with typography

fragmented

and suggested exaggerated pronunciation

it gets
right
on my
tits;

It's possible to say something much more clearly without arranging it all broken up into little tiny bits, wasting lots of space just to attempt to control the pace at which the piece is read or spoken.

Likewise
when spoken
aloud
with words run-together,
bro ken,
unnaturally stressed
not just spoken, but sung!
except without a mitigating tune
the inevitable impression created
though seldom explicitly stated
is that the speaker
is a simpering


affectatious



spoon.

The example most recent
in my own memory
was at the wedding of my cousin,
close to the start of the century.
His university readings
included courses on verse
and, as might be expected
one of his friends had elected
to emit, in celebration
of his wedding-occasion
a selection of poetry
whose content and original author
now escapes me
for the manner of its delivery
was far worse than the content
and thus more memorable.

The image I chose
to describe the reader's style
cannot really convey just quite how vile
I found her pretension.
I like to read, and treat books well,
seldom unnecessarily bending them
(and only with much trepidation lending them).
I would not, however, ever choose
the stance the poem's reader used
the book was held
with such exaggerated care
as one might cradle
a half-ripped wet paper bag
filled with testicles, sore and heavily bruised.

As I hope to have conveyed
if I have not
from my point
too often
or too far
strayed:

It's entirely feasible, I find
to keep things readable
but yet quite meaningful
without breaking things up into far too many little tiny
three-or-four-word
lines.

And, similarly,

double-spacing

whilst affecting pacing

can often simply

add height

without

particularly



adding depth.

***

The excessively stereotypically poetic arrangement of that annoyed me slightly when I clicked through to read it this morning, though whether the double-spacing was at the request of the author or editor is unknown. I'd hate to think it was standard practice to double-space otherwise typographically normal writing just because it's a poem but fear it might be.

As with many forms of expression, some things are beguilingly listenable, watchable and readable and some things irritating from the first frame, beat, word or page. Often something good can be ruined by either poor or over-the-top delivery or presentation.

On a related note and although it might annoy me too I'm just off to watch that, partly because it was reported by parents as containing a few bits filmed around my school and home village, whither the narrator also went and whence he also came.