Snobbery Has No Place in Art

April 7, 2021

I read something about “professional poetry” that made me laugh,
They were writing about amateurs and being pains in the ass.
Someone wrote how the Internet made it too easy to rhyme,
As if making poetry accessible was somehow a crime.

“Rhyming poetry is easy” is what one effete then said,
“Good rhyming poetry is hard” he added instead.
“Rhyming poetry was only respected when it was hard”
Now doesn’t that sound like a typical blowhard?

“Rhyme is relegated to song lyrics, its so low-brow,”
“Leave poetry to the professionals, the ones who know how”
“If everyone could do it then it can’t be respected,”
What happened to art keeping people connected?

The poems and stories these literature snobs revere ,
Were originally for the masses, for PEOPLE to hear.
You didn’t have to be learn-ed to enjoy what you’d heard.
You just have to relate to hang on every new word.

Think about music where the same thing happens,
To look down on certain people and say “it’s just rapping.”
To judge people’s expression is to rob us of our power,
We say “fuck you,” and belt it out in cars and showers.

So to the snobs I want stop and teach you a lesson,
You may call it bad poetry, well I call it expression.
You are right when you say your training sets you apart,
You are removed from the people and separated from art.

If low-brow makes people happy, then just let us be,
We’ll call it something else and not fine poetry.
But graffiti gets respected, rap wins a Pulitzer prize,
One day you’ll have to study what we low-browers write.