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I was reading the dictionary. I thought it was a poem about everything.~~Steven Wright
Poetry should... should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance.~~John Keats
Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.~~Plato
The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth.~~Jean Cocteau
A poet's autobiography is his poetry. Anything else is just a footnote.~~Yevgeny Yevtushenko
There is not a particle of life which does not bear poetry within it.~~Gustave Flaubert
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When thinking memoir and giving it my own spin, I am using poetry rather than prose for many of the episodes of my life that I wish to tell. Absolutely, there are prose chapters--short stories and essays, but as I am a poet, I also wanted poetic takes on some of the events. For some of my 'stories' I thought that they were just more conducive to poetry.
And there is no reason not to include my poems as they are such an important part of my life. At least, writing poetry is. So, why not? Yet, when I've talked to people, they are often surprised that I would do that. A memoir does not have to be 'my story, start to finish' all in story form. It doesn't even need to be chronological! Mine will be mostly 'in order' but. You see, I like the idea of a book that can be picked up, opened to a random spot and a tale told.
Kind of like how one gets to know someone. We meet someone and we get 'their stories' in bits and pieces, of a specific moment, out of context and as a thought occurs. This is how were 'get t know' them. So short stories, essays, and poetry all mixed together works. Perhaps a poem or three and then an essay that links them together.
The thing is, some of my (and yours, I am sure) poetry had spouted in reaction to an event, happenstance, moment, or occasion that I have encountered or lived through --survived, endured or overcome. Sometimes a subject just lends itself to a poetic telling. Sure, details might be truncated, or expanded this way, but sometimes, that's just the best way to express the thoughts nd feelings. And, these things are captured, much like a photo, in the moment of our writing it and its usually relatively near the time whatever happened, happened!
The thing is, there is no one 'correct' way to write a memoir. It is whatever is right for the individual. At least, I think so. As poets, much of what we write is autobiographical, so why not use what we've already covered?
For some, the ide of writing a book is daunting. How do they show their story? But as poets, we do this all the time. It certainly can be something to think about, possibilities to explore! |
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Elfin Dragon-finally published  says: I agree with you that using rhyme is most likely a personal preference. For me, it's usually Freeverse. But like you, sometimes that first verse will flow rhythmically into the next and before I know it, I've got a poem that either rhymes or is at the very least rhythmic.
Monty  writes: We can tell the story of the true ride of Paul Revere but it it not as interesting as when we remove some of the other riders and read or speak it as the Poem and what would be better than reading Robert Service's Cremation of Sam McGee. But take away, There are strange things in the midnight sun, By the men who moil for gold, The Artic trails have there secret tales, That would make your blood run cold... and so on. Gotta stick with my rhymes. I did win a first place and a ribbon here with one Free Verse that I wrote because you can do anything if you but try. Thanks for a great News Letter Fyn
Thank you!
R.S. Cooper  comments: I'm currently reading John Milton's "Paradise Lost," and I think Milton's opinion on free verse as opposed to rhymed poetry is fascinating, and worth quoting in it’s entirety:
"The measure [of Paradise Lost] is English Heroic Verse without rhyme, as that of Homer in Greek, and of Virgil in Latin; rhyme being no necessary adjunct or true ornament of poem or good verse, in longer works especially, but the invention of a barbarous age, to set off wretched matter and lame meter; graced indeed since by the use of some famous modern poets. carried away by custom, but much to their own vexation, hindrance, and constraint to express many things otherwise, and for the most part worse than else they would have expressed them. Not without cause therefore some Italian and Spanish poets of prime note have rejected rhyme both in longer and shorter works, as have also long since our best English tragedies, as a thing of itself, to all judicious ears, trivial and of no true musical delight; which consists only in apt numbers, fit quantity of syllables, and the sense various drawn out from one verse into another, not in the jingling sound of like endings, a fault avoided by the learned Ancients both in poetry and in all good oratory. This neglect then of rhyme so little is to be taken for a defect, though it may seem so perhaps to vulgar readers, that it rather is to be esteemed an example set, the first in English, of ancient liberty recovered to heroic poem from the troublesome and modern bondage of rhyming.”
For those not wanting to parse out the 1600s English, Milton essentially believed that blank verse was a superior form of poetry, to be used for great epics and topics of high drama or importance. Rhyme, in his view, was not a mark of good poetry. Although “graced” by poets like Dante and Alonso de Ercilla, rhyme was originally a barbaric form of writing meant for trivial, vulgar, or crude subject-matter, designed to only provide immediate gratification and superficial delight through “the jingling sound of like endings.” Milton thought modern poets of his day had become “carried away” with rhyming. In his view, rhyming was a poetic device too often used for its own sake, and without regard as to whether the poem actually called for it. He viewed Paradise Lost, among other things, as his attempt to “liberate” the genre of epic poetry from its “bondage of rhyming.”
Definitely some food for thought!
It certainly is.
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Poetry: October 26, 2022 Issue [#11635]
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