Ode to the Guffaw of the rural

Poetry in Entropy

A poetry anthology by Richard Munn

Preface

Poetry is a very personal thing. No two people really ever experience the same poem in the same way as no two people see the same rainbow (#1) . Each reader will interpret the words on the page differently, depending on their experiences and feelings at the time.

A simple verse may uncover many different hidden meanings to many different readers, and it can be asked if any one meaning is any more "correct" or if it was just intended to be taken at face value.

It is drummed into us as we grow up that poetry is contains deep hidden meanings (#2) , which has the effect of forcing people to try and discover the true meaning of lines of prose that to them seem to be almost entirely nonsense, often assuming that on finding nothing that they themselves are the ones at fault. The end result is, as adults they have little chance of really enjoying poetry just for itself, and letting the images come naturally.

I have written the poetry in this collection over a period of about ten years, although it isn't presented in any particular order as I never thought to record when each was written. I feel that that as a person I have changed since I sat and wrote the first of these poems in a free period during my A levels, but the one thing they all have in common is that they were composed in a random, chaotic manner, such as picking out a random selection of words from a magnetic poetry set to form the main backbone of a poem.

Each verse was written without any kind of plan or hidden meaning in mind, although of course the human element of assembling the words will have added something - possibly at a subconscious level, but I myself find it amazing how easy it is to read meanings in to something when you know there is none there.

So please enjoy the works in this collection and feel free to make your own decisions about what it all means, just remember that every interpretation is unique, each one equally valid.

Richard Munn, August 2004

#1 The rainbow you see is the product of the sun's light refracting through millions of raindrops. If you were to stand in a different position then the light that reaches your eyes would have passed through entirely different raindrops.

#2 Along with the belief that poetry has to rhyme.