... of poems

!! SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT WATCHED "DEAD POET'S SOCIETY"

"We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.

To quote from Whitman, "O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless -- of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?" Answer. That you are here -- that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.

That the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?"

- John Keating (played by Robin Williams in "Dead Poet's Society")

For those who actually finished the whole thing, I applaud you on Keating's behalf. Indeed, what will your verse be when the time comes...

And no! I did not begin writing poem because it's cute! It's the fundamentals of what I find fun in songs - the rhyme. We all write because we feel passionate about something, be it the big stuff like questions of our human lives, to the small stuff like making sushi. I did mine through poems that 'sound nice'. Simple and clean.

And no leh, somehow it doesn't help pick up girls. :/ You're WRONG, O captain, my captain.

Back to the issue, for I believe that poems are a great way to express ourselves. It doesn't need to be as great Shakey's "Romeo and Juliet". The poems we write are no less real than 'masterpieces'. We are THE masterpieces. Even the simplest of lines, and I strongly believe, makes the world and the people real. Remember the bohemain spirit of truth, beauty, and above all things, love.

So I pity myself for believing I wasn't good enough for literature. "You're not good enough." my teachers would say. Bah! Now I'm free, and more free with expression. Literature is meaningless. We, the human race, do.