Poetry has always been a means of expressing the most human feelings in transformative, brutal, or lyrical wording. It is trying to encapsulate emotion in it's most base, distilled, and complex forms, layering their meaning into phrases so as to subvert, draw attention to, or lead the reader to their own conclusion. While it often makes the point very clear, some forms of poetry shroud the intent or object of their muse in ambiguity or anonymity out of necessity or whim -something I do often.
Poetry is, to me at least, making magic and soul that's audible, like music or how nature finds it's own rhythm.
In this way, I find that symbolist poetry is one of my favorite types, alongside romantic poetry or epics. For me, I think finding the correct symbol to match up with the ideal is the hardest part, and then depending on whether or not I'm trying to use a rhyme scheme, fitting them into that specific format.
Admittedly, I don't think my latest poem was by any means my best, but mostly out of my forced ambiguity. I did not want to be too forward with the underlying message, and I think that this makes the entire piece crumble. O Hallowed Beasts is actually about the United States of America, and how 9/11 has forever changed our national discourse, mostly by giving some with savage ideals and hate a guise by which to 'defend' our country and feeding into the war-mongers whom idolize conflict.
Justice, Vengeance, and Truth, represented as lionesses, ideas that we should all aspire to uphold and revere, are now a hollow disguise and are left unfed and chained. They wither, scream and cry as they watch what their following has become, no longer walking on the path they had forged for them. Don't get me wrong, this country has always done horrid things both domestic and abroad, but with political vitriol at an all-time high, I did not want to make this message abundantly clear, although I hope its intent still shines through.
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