The Holocaust, injured war veterans and dying in a plane crash might not seem like the funniest subjects, but Bardia Sinaee said he believes humorous poetry helps society talk about taboo subjects.
“[It’s] putting things in our society where they don’t belong and there’s something funny about it,” said the third-year English student, who hosted the In/Words workshop on humour and sarcasm in poetry Feb. 6 in Dunton Tower.
Some people might have expected dirty limericks and joke poetry, but Sinaee said he wanted to look at humour in a less conventional way.
He focused on poems that used irony, sarcasm and aloof language to infuse pieces with humour, “without trying.”
“Short Talk on Hopes,” a poem by Anne Carson, describes a woman’s desire to have a house made of rubber. Sandwiched between the childish descriptions comes one line, “I have a friend whose hands were melted off by a firebomb.”
One student at the workshop, who recently came back from a year in Afghanistan, said the line was offensive, but he said he could see the humour in it. He said he often used humour as a coping mechanism while in Afghanistan.
Humorous poems don’t have to centre on serious topics, Sinaee said.
Sinaee, who is also the editor of Carleton’s printing press In/Words, said he was insecure about writing poetry at first.
“Poetry has this austere snootiness of spitting in brandy,” he said.
Humour neutralizes the perceived pretension, he added.
One of the first poems Sinaee said he wrote was a sonnet titled “Irritable Bowel Syndrome.” He said the subject matter helped him get comfortable with the form.
Matt Jones, a fourth-year English student, shared a fictional poem about playing “naked Twister with his girlfriend’s 16-year old sister.”
He admits the poem is crude but people think it’s OK because it’s funny, he said.
“A poem as a form is so much of a blank page,” Sinaee said. “Anything goes if it’s justified.”
