I'm only 44, but I think I know a bit of what you mean about age adding to clarity. Although I know a bit about rhyme and rhythm and syntax, poetry as a structured pursuit rarely interests me. At the same time, I find that some poetry which rebels against structure becomes a curious sort of orthodoxy of its own. Ultimately, though, the question is whether one can find readers whom one enjoys reading, and writers whom one enjoys writing. This is what I call the "participatory democracy" of the thing.
I think, sometimes, how the narrative-essay form of a weblog can be much easier reading for most folks, but can permit the writer to create the same kinds of images which a poem might create. I wonder, in this vein, if it is very important to label things as "poems". But I still do so.
I appreciate the comment about an honesty and a transparency. Honesty comes naturally to me, because I have a dread of being other than what I am. I always feel such guilt when I find myself to have been less than fully sincere.
I've been intrigued by how much I am willing to show in this weblog. But most of my real-life friends would argue that I'm difficult to really know. I suppose anyone is difficult to really know. There are so many layers to any person.
Was there some triggering event that sparked your interest in writing poetry lately? I'm a big believer in self-publishing. To my mind, it's the only real way to go. I'm not saying that I wouldn't enjoy the fun of having a major corporation's distribution system available (an advance would be nice, too, though I am not that enamoured of publishing economics). But for a poetry writer, or a writer of small books (which is what I'd be if I did not write poetry), there is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow in any event. The circulation of even the big name poetry magazines is so small. There's a cachet, I suppose, to having a poem picked for publication. I submit for publication once in a while because I am vain enough to admit that I enjoy seeing my name in someone else's magazine. I've had only a solid handful published, but over time, I pretty much know how to keep the rejection rate down to merely awful rather than universal.
But I remember being 20something, and seeing a copy of Voices International, where the best poem I've published got published. It was a nice little chapbook, with a photo on the front cover, and some good poetry inside. I remember thinking, though, that all that really stands between that publication and self-publishing was a bit of grant money. Now that the cost of publishing has gone down so much, that barrier is much thinner.
I keep a side journal, gurdonpoems, in which I place poetry. I'm always intrigued that it gets far fewer comments than my weblog does. I try to learn from that--that essays more than poetry may be something I can do.
Still, my best writing experience was my chess poems book. I loved that I conceived and executed the idea in less than sixty days. But here's where personal traps capture one--I had enough positive feedback from that book that I'm pretty sure I could do the "write light poems about chess and market them on eBay" again. I'd sell enough dozen copies to break even and build an audience. But for some reason, I've not written the follow-up. No good reason, really, just the feeling that the world had need for fewer chess poems than I've written. But I can see that I could set up www.chesspoems.com, publish a chapbook in a more "real" way, with an ISBN and all that, get it listed on amazon and b & n, and really have a niche as a promoter of poetry about chess. But I don't pursue it.
Sorry to ramble on so, but it's an interesting topic to me. I find that I write poetry best--although I go through many "blanks" to write anything remotely resembling a bullet. But the weblog has opened me up to prose, and for that I'm grateful.
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Date: 2004-03-24 04:03 am (UTC)I think, sometimes, how the narrative-essay form of a weblog can be much easier reading for most folks, but can permit the writer to create the same kinds of images which a poem might create. I wonder, in this vein, if it is very important to label things as "poems". But I still do so.
I appreciate the comment about an honesty and a transparency. Honesty comes naturally to me, because I have a dread of being
other than what I am. I always feel such guilt when I find myself to have been less than fully sincere.
I've been intrigued by how much I am willing to show in this weblog.
But most of my real-life friends would argue that I'm difficult to really know. I suppose anyone is difficult to really know. There are so many layers to any person.
Was there some triggering event that sparked your interest in writing poetry lately? I'm a big believer in self-publishing. To my mind, it's the only real way to go. I'm not saying that I wouldn't enjoy the fun of having a major corporation's distribution system available (an advance would be nice, too, though I am not that enamoured of publishing economics). But for a poetry writer, or a writer of small books (which is what I'd be if I did not write poetry), there is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow in any event. The circulation of even the big name poetry magazines is so small. There's a cachet, I suppose, to having a poem picked for publication. I submit for publication once in a while because I am vain enough to admit that I enjoy seeing my name in someone else's magazine. I've had only a solid handful published, but over time, I pretty much know how to keep the rejection rate down to merely awful rather than universal.
But I remember being 20something, and seeing a copy of Voices International, where the best poem I've published got published.
It was a nice little chapbook, with a photo on the front cover, and some good poetry inside. I remember thinking, though, that all that really stands between that publication and self-publishing was a bit of grant money. Now that the cost of publishing has gone down so much, that barrier is much thinner.
I keep a side journal, gurdonpoems, in which I place poetry. I'm always intrigued that it gets far fewer comments than my weblog does. I try to learn from that--that essays more than poetry may be something I can do.
Still, my best writing experience was my chess poems book. I loved that I conceived and executed the idea in less than sixty days.
But here's where personal traps capture one--I had enough positive feedback from that book that I'm pretty sure I could do the "write light poems about chess and market them on eBay" again. I'd sell enough dozen copies to break even and build an audience. But for some reason, I've not written the follow-up. No good reason, really, just the feeling that the world had need for fewer chess poems than I've written. But I can see that I could set up www.chesspoems.com, publish a chapbook in a more "real" way, with an ISBN and all that, get it listed on amazon and b & n, and really have a niche as a promoter of poetry about chess. But I don't pursue it.
Sorry to ramble on so, but it's an interesting topic to me. I find that I write poetry best--although I go through many "blanks" to write anything remotely resembling a bullet. But the weblog has
opened me up to prose, and for that I'm grateful.