and all that JAZZ

As a prose fictional writer, I tend to dislike poetry. However, I find refuge in Shakespeare and iambic pentameter. This is why it was so difficult for me to read the Postmodern American poetry. I enjoyed the poetics versions of the authors talking about their specific imaginative, free-thought, unedited version more than the poetry itself. Nonetheless, I attempted to read with an unprejudiced mind and with a desire to find a poetic inspiration.
All poets referred to the same ideal: free verse, a literary movement known as imagism. Charles Olsen seems to be a foundational figure in this idea. In his Projective Verse, he writes about how “a poem is energy transferred from where the poet got it” and this –to me- is more poetic and caused more revelation than In Cold Hell, in Thicket. Maybe I need a intellectual discussion to understand poetry but I feel it’s beyond the concept of self-interpretation and writing if one can’t understand on his or her own. In spite of this, I enjoyed all the advice Olsen and other poetics had to give: about breath, alignment, about engaging the first thought, about the focus on ear, and about how to read the spaces in between lines (very useful for someone who never reads poetry).
Allen Ginsberg describes this process as an “abstract poetry of mind”. In Denise Levertov’s Some Notes on Organic Form, she states that this revelation of writing is a “rough outline of a possible moment in life”. Interestingly, Robert Creeley uses jazz music to rely the concept of improvisation, to “write silences as actively as sounds…” I am inspired by all these quotations, especially in How You Sound?? by Amiri Baraka, “I make poetry with what I feel is useful & can be saved out of all the garbage of our lives”.
It is possible that I understand the imminent release of traditional ways and away from a specific form such as iambic pentameter. Poetry is breath. It is meant to be read out loud, otherwise it is just introspective hypocrisy. Anyone can write poetry. Thoughts are poetic. Steer away from descriptive form. Breath out words from the mind. Listen and Learn. Howl. All of it is in relation to each other because it came out like that originally. Nothing can be wrong. This helps me to re-read most of the poetry. I can now appreciate what all the jazz is about. Maybe even attempt to transfer my enjambment thoughts onto paper. And while attempting to do so, I can appreciate how unique and rhythmical postmodern poetry is.