3 F's for Poetry and Systems

Write incredible poems that flow better; create excellent systems that feel better.

One of the advantages of being a creative person who works with systems is how you see and process the system.

Because you’re able to produce excellent outcomes, people will compliment you on being analytical and detail oriented. But it’s your talent in The Arts (Poetry is a member) that produce the results.

What if you don’t consider yourself talented in poetry or The Arts? How does this apply to you? You don’t have to be a poet to apply these to your personal—or professional—life.

Two things to accept going into this: you are a creative person (by design), and you can learn the principles applied—which in turn, will further develop your creative skills.

And here’s how you do it, using what I call the 3 F’s for Poetry (and Systems).

• Feel

• Flow

• Function

Do you want to be a better poet? See better results from your systems? Then continue reading and find out how.

Feel

Even the best poems that make you think, make you feel throughout the experience.

It would be shallow to say Feel is just emotion. Emotion is part of it, but it’s also how you respond to the emotion. You can have a poem with a sad emotion that feels great.

Systems are the same. As it’s said, “The best systems are the ones you use.” And the ones you use are the ones that feel good to use.

This is the reader experience. The user experience. In the case of a personal system—you’re own experience.

Consider the final four lines of Robert Frost’s “The Oven Bird” as a perfect example of poetry that makes you think, feel, and experience the depth of each.

The is a singer everyone has heard,
Loud, a mid-summer and mid-wood bird,
Who makes the solid tree trunks sound again.
He says that leaves are old and that for flowers,
Mid-summer is to spring as one to ten.
He says the early petal-fall is past
When pear and cherry bloom went down in showers
On sunny days a moment overcast;
And comes that other fall we name the fall.
He says the highway dust is over all.
The bird would cease and be as other birds
But that he knows in singing not to sing.
The question that he frames in all but words
Is what to make of a diminished thing.

Emphasis added.

Then consider “The Oven Bird” is a type of sonnet. And a sonnet is a poetic system.

The beat, meanings, and sounds of the word make you feel the “sad” emotion, while enjoying it too.

Get a sense of Feel, and design your work to include it.

(I do want to mention that Feel can go much deeper—in the way you get a “feel” for doing or experiencing something. But that may have to be a standalone post.)

Now, you may be wondering: “What if the system feels boring, and I just can’t bring myself to enjoy it? What if the poem deals with a really sad topic—how would I enjoy that?”

The answer to those questions is Flow.

Flow

Flow builds off Feel.

Flow is part rhythm, part rhyme. Both may be literal or figurative, depending on the context.

The inspiration for Flow and Feel in regards to poetry and systems came from leading prayer services for college students, years ago.

In leading a service, you need the flow nailed down to facilitate the best experience—where people are free to feel. Flow include order, transitions, and even what’s included or cut from the serve.

The same applies to poems and systems. Even if a system is effective in theory, if it doesn’t flow well—if it’s not easy to follow—it’s not going to be effective in practice.

Referring back to “The Oven Bird”, Frost uses the Sonnet form to facilitate flow through the rhyme scheme, poetic meter (beats per line), and turns of thought.

Looking at the final four lines again, the change in rhyme structure is designed to coincide with the turn of thought.

The bird would cease and be as other birds
But that he knows in singing not to sing.
The question that he frames in all but words
Is what to make of a diminished thing.

That’s flow.

But what’s the point of Flow? Function

Function

Function is the point of what you’re doing.

Obviously. That is obvious, right?

You may think that’s a no-brainer, but how many times have you had to do a system in the work place that felt pointless? Or read a poem that seemed like nonsense?

It’s easy to take Function for granted… But try adding intentionality, and see what happens.

For the longest time, I had two F’s: Feel and Flow, both from the poetry side of things.

I added Function from the systems side after listening to the audiobook for Jobs to Be Done: Theory to Practice by Anthony W. Ulwick

In Jobs-to-be-Done Theory, “functional” is one of the types of jobs, or core tasks, that a customer wants to accomplish and you want your product or service to serve.

In poetry and systems terms, think of Function as the job you want the poem or system to accomplish.

Do you want to create a poem for a ready (or listener) to experience in a certain way? Consider the function of everything involved, from enjambments in line breaks to double entendres in word choice.

Do you want to innovate a system that is as efficient as possible? Consider how it could produce win-win outcomes for multiple users (or consumers).

For a poem or system, Function is an opportunity for creative and innovative excellence. By simple awareness of it, you might find additional opportunities you would have otherwise missed.

Using the example of “The Oven Bird” one last time, Frost’s choice of a sonnet serves the function of the poem—providing an opportunity to introduce an introspective turn at the end.

The question that he frames in all but words
Is what to make of a diminished thing.

And you’re left pondering the experience of the poem.

For a system, you’re left amazed at the results.

P.S. But what if the function is tedious? Feel and Flow, full circle.

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