Saturday, June 18, 2005

Alien

One of the conversations I have had with my mentor recently, after of course the five pages on syntax was the weakness of modern poetry. In truth, she has these conversations mostly with herself and I sit there in fear thinking she’s going to tie my name into it some how.

We forget to write how we talk. The ticker tape in our head which really is a beautiful poem does not always come out on the page. We transform it into what we believe a poem should look like and I do know that most harmful thing in any art form is preconceived notions.

I am thinking of this b/c I do not see the prose poems at all in my work. I don’t know how to do what Emily did and pull them out of posts and there is a part of me that is a little angry that they are not coming out in “poem form” my poem form and yet I have a distinct feeling they need to stay as there are.

When I take my students out to paint I tell them to forget everything they know, this is not really a tree, I say but some creature who has landed here and now is beginning to grow. You are the first person to paint a tree, describe what it really is.

I tell my students, if we approach things as alien we can finally see their beauty.

5 comments:

Emily Lloyd said...
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Pris said...

I could relate so strongly to this post. I read too many poems where I'm more aware of the poet speaking than the words he/she speaks.

Anne Haines said...

What a great post. This is something I've been thinking about specifically in connection with blogging -- because there are several bloggers (yourself included) whose posts often strike me as poems in themselves. I find myself envying that, how easy it looks, and then I remember how when I was young -- high school, undergrad -- I would sit there and splort out five poems in an evening. Poetry was just how I saw the world and how my thoughts came out on the page.

Then I took classes and workshops and read a bunch of poetry and got all concerned about making a poem -- making it into a thing, crafting it, tinkering with it. It started becoming this thing outside of me and not just how my vision of the world came out. I'd like to get back to that earlier way of writing -- though hopefully with a bit more wisdom and insight than I had in high school (25+ years ago, egad!) -- not fussing over whether or not something is "a poem" but just getting it on the page and maybe worrying about the poem-as-poem later.

early hours of sky said...

Picasso talks about this in his painting, how he studied formly for years and years yet he had to return to the place of childhood and carry all that wisdom with him.

666poetry-finchnot said...

We forget to write how we talk. The ticker tape in our head which really is a beautiful poem does not always come out on the page. We transform it into what we believe a poem should look like and I do know that most harmful thing in any art form is preconceived notions.



i can relate completely /

t / thanx for making me think
some times / i can't remember how


so glad to know you & your
brilliant mind

i was going to say
'i think i'm in love with you'
but i don't want to start any rumours

but it's true / i love you
i do i do i do i do *sung to
the tune of ABBA (personal fav of yours / i know / lol)

peace / out sista ;D
keep writing these wonderful posts

~finchyx