 Poetry: November 02, 2016 Issue [#7946] |
  Poetry
This week: What's Behind the Poem? Edited by: Fyn  
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Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.~~ Leonard Cohen
Poetry is truth in its Sunday clothes.~~Joseph Roux
Poetry is what in a poem makes you laugh, cry, prickle, be silent, makes your toe nails twinkle, makes you want to do this or that or nothing, makes you know that you are alone in the unknown world, that your bliss and suffering is forever shared and forever all your own.~~Dylan Thomas
If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.~~Emily Dickinson
Poetry is the journal of a sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the air.~~ Carl Sandburg
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Poetry is that wonderful medium where you can tell of an epic occasion or express a simple truth. It can be flowery, stark, wordy or concise. It is a basket full of words scattered on a page in such an arrangement as to portray emotion or tale. Much like a piano sitting in an empty room, silent, yet holding all sorts of possible combinations, a poet holds a head full off words, which, when artfully combined, become poetic music. Who knows when the player lays fingers to the keys what sort of music or jangled notes will come forth? Concert pianist or three-year-old banging on the keys haphazardly, erupting in sheer joy at the sounds they've created.
Words are the poet's notes, his phrasings the chords, and depending upon the intention behind the words, a creation of lasting truth or a fireside tale meant to inform or recount pasts doings. Is the intention to express a loss, deflate anger, incite the troops or inspire the multitudes? Do the words fall together, inspired perhaps by an odd phrase, and become what they may? (Sometimes, for certain!) Or is there an urge to express a simple, basic truth recently realized? Is it to share, inform or comment? What is behind the writing of any specific poem?
Can a poem begin with one and end up being another? Of course. Does the desire, the I 'feel like writing a poem' come from one or the other? Is it the necessity to write to a prompt? And if so, is that merely all it is? Or will it/can it/does it morph into something 'more'? Must it? There are varying schools of thought on that subject. Personally, I feel that the poem will become exactly what it is meant to be. Some will communicate a truth, others will share an experience, a moment just for what it is in the grand scheme of things.
Once upon a time, my alma mater would use writings of former students in their literature classes while getting students to learn how to read deep, and hopefully, giving them insight on how to write deeply. You remember those classes where you looked for symbolism and tried to ferret out what the poet was actually saying. Sometimes it was crystal clear and other times it was just so much garbage that the meaning behind was lost on you. Poetry may be written for the writer, but, in truth, it is written for the reader. Ultimately, it is the reader's point of view that will determine what is good and what isn't. This will be based upon the reader's experiences, ideas, thoughts, emotions and openness to understanding. Often, there simply is no one way to decipher a poet's meaning, intention or desire, because as in any combination of words, there may well be more than one way to decode it, if you will.
I remember bringing my college-seeking daughter to my former school to see if it would be a good fit for her. She's a writer as well so we stopped by some of the literature and writing classes to observe. The class was going over a poem, written by a former student, called 'The Bridge.' Essentially, the poem was about an old wooden covered bridge being washed away during a storm and how the people in the small town reacted to it. Deeper, it was about how people react to changes in their lives. Some give up. Some find it a challenge. Others shrug, pick up the pieces and go on (read that as adapt!) or bemoan what 'once was'. Something along the lines of it taking all kinds of people to make up a community and how each reacts in their own way while all coming together (in spite of this big change as many didn't care for a recently built steel bridge over the river dividing their town) to do what needed to be done. The teacher was wanting the students to come up with a greater truth that she said was 'behind' the poem. She wanted the students to figure out why the poet wrote the poem in the first place. Why the poet picked a small New England community and why was it set in the 1920s. Why didn't the poet set the poem in the 70s for example and how would it have been written differently had the poet done that. She talked about symbolism that the poet used and wanted the students to explain why it worked in the poem.
My daughter whispered that she thought the poem seemed familiar, but that the class didn't seem much different than her high school lit class.
One student raised her hand to ask if the poet might have been trying to express that the narrator of the poem was merely a cranky old man who didn't really like any sort of change, who was set in his ways, but who realized that as he couldn't do anything about some changes, dealt with them and went on. He, to her mind, represented one 'school of thought' that one will get used to changes over time and as life goes on, one must adapt and change because nothing stays the same forever. That maybe, while an 'old' way of doing things was perfectly fine, that it didn't mean that a new way wouldn't work as well.
The teacher said that that wasn't what the poet intended at all. The girl asked how the teacher, indeed, how could anyone, actually know for sure without talking to the poet. Wasn't it more important to pull a truth from the poem and that couldn't there possibly be several truths to what the poet was trying to say. The teacher didn't believe that to be true. The student, now standing, continued to think out loud. She mentioned about the time frame the poet had chosen and went on to say how they might have made the same point setting the poem in the current day and used how the Viet Nam war was changing many peoples ideas and concepts and how the entire world was changing from what it had been and how the different generations reacted differently to war or politics, but continued on to say that using an older time frame only made the ideas of the changing world more drastic (then as compared to the 70s when the poem was written) and yet did it in such a way that it wasn't just another 'war' poem so to speak. She said that in effect, the entire poem was a metaphor.
The teacher told her that she was going too far and that wasn't what the poet was doing at all. She then 'changed' the subject and went on to a question about the poet's real use of metaphor. The girl sat in her seat, a mutinous look on her face, sighed, and continued taking notes.
My daughter looked puzzled for a moment and then poked me, whispering, that she remembered the poem now and that the girl had it exactly right. I smiled at my daughter because she and the student did have it correct. It was so difficult to stand there quietly. "Say something, Mom. Or I will!" I shook my head. "But Mom, the girl got it and did exactly what the teacher wants her to do, but the teacher isn't getting it because she gets different things from the poem than the student does. That's the reason it is a good poem to begin with!"
Her urgent whispering now had the teacher's attention. She asked if the visitor would like to add to the discussion. Put on the spot, my daughter said that she thought that the student had made an important point. More, that the girl was exactly right. The teacher wondered what made her so sure of that supposed fact. My daughter pointed at me, grinning and said, "She wrote it! She's always told me that one really good way to make a point was to frame it within the constructs of something else entirely allowing it to be removed just enough from current circumstances to make the point timelessly clear. She's also always told me that that is why it is so important to read literature because while things change, they also, ultimately remain the same over time."
I jumped into the fray at that point (feeling slightly bad for the now rather ruddy-faced teacher) and made the comment that that was one of the things about poetry: there were many ways to interpret any given poem and that there might well be several perfectly correct ways to see it. We spent the rest of the class talking about writer's intentions, how a poem can evolve over time and how a reader brings their own individual life experiences to a poem which can make something written thirty or three hundred and thirty years prior still relevant today.
Carl Sandburg had it absolutely correct when he said: Poetry is the journal of a sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the air. Poetry allows for many interpretations and while the writer should set out to accomplish a specific set of goals within the poem, that the reader will take what applies and color the poem within the framework of their existence. The words may well be set in stone, but the meaning will or may morph over time. It may not. Clear and concise goals originally will only add to a poem, allowing for it to be accessible to a great number of people given their lives, surroundings and circumstances.
My daughter, by the way, did not attend that college, indeed, put college off for a few years opting to join the US Navy instead where she became a prize-winning journalist. In the military, most of the journalism is based upon keeping a high moral for the troops. It meant reporting on good news or, at the very least, putting a good spin to it. Again, the end goal of any particular piece, being in the fore when writing. Newspaper and media journalists today (quite different from the non-judgmental reporters of the past who stuck with straight facts) have a particular politically motivated slant to push forward a specific point, the goal being to enhance a particular position, mentality or action. The actual truth of it all being grounded in a particular set of beliefs and will be agreed with or disputed depending upon which side of the fence you are sitting on. Still, a specific goal is in mind when writing.
Poetry is often the window into how people think at any given time, reflecting and refracting a set of thoughts, beliefs and mores. Imagine folks reading your words fifty or a couple of hundred years in the future. Would (will?) they interpret your words as you meant them upon writing that poem? Or will they get something diametrically opposed to your intention? Will they 'get it' or will they have no clue? Knowing what you 'intend' to shine through will help your reader to understand what you are truly writing, what you want to communicate!
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(The poem referenced above)
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#2052880 by Not Available. |
| | Day-drops (E)
An exercise in imagery or what I see from my window today
#2067204 by tucknits  |
| | Gaia (18+)
Meant to be a part of a larger piece.
#2054567 by Geoff  |
| | | Invalid Item
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#2073422 by Not Available. |
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CursedFreedom  says: My goodness, I just want to thank you for featuring one of my poems in this newsletter. I haven't written in almost ten years but having seen this gives me a bit of motivation again. Humbly, -Cursed
Good...be motivated...it is a good thing to be! *smiles*
dogpack saving 4premium  writes: Now you've done it! You got me thinking about the little details, great job! I believe this will help me to create better poetry word art. We need reminders like the information you shared, much thanks.
:)
Cappucine  comments: What a beautiful Letter from the Editor.
This strongly resonates with me. 
Fi adds: So true! Details are real gems and I'm learning to make use of them more in my poetry. Noticing them is the hard thing, writing about them is the second hardest thing. Thanks for the newsletter.
DRSmith smiles: Superb. Another poignant homerun newsie, 'Ol Fyn... these are the type that in so little space can pack so much punch that no one ever forgets; just another raindrop clinging to the spattered window pane of life, yes?
YES!
Mara ♣ McBain  writes: Loved your newsletter on the little things. Not only did it bring back memories but it also was a reminder of something I try hard to do in my writing, add the little things. Tiny details make a character, make a story. 
Absolutely!
Uncommonspirit says: I loved the quotes you picked this time. :) I always look forward to reading this newsletter.
Yay!!!
Elfin Dragon-finally published adds: You're right about the little things. I've been divorced from my second husband since 2013. We were friends and married for 26 years. I still miss his flirty jokes and the fact he wasn't afraid to hold hands wherever we went. We had a plethora of stuffed animals because we both kept buying little ones for each other. Not to mention books. Life is dull without someone to share it with.
Tis the details...they make up the basics of both our lives ... and those of our characters...and in our poetry!
Shannon  comments: This is a beautiful newsletter, Fyn; it actually brought tears to my eyes. You are so right.
Awww...you made me smile...thank you!
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