I may have over-immersed myself in poetry recently - reading poets previously known and many new to me, reading books about poetry, thinking about poetry and also looking at poetry blogs and writing my own. I may take a break - but not before writing this, if for no other reason than to get it out of my head.
Things that have occurred to me as a result of the above - in no particular order. (I've already spoken a bit about it in earlier blogs.)
- there is so much that I haven't thought about - about myself and others
- there is quite a bit I have thought about - but I'm not sure now how I feel about it
- having now thought more about it, I'm more confused than I was before I started
- I've found poetry unlike anything I've read before, and so unlike anything I've written myself - and I don't have a fixed style of writing - and that's quite exciting
- it still confuses me that I can really like some poems in a collection and really dislike others
- there's a limit to how much poetry I can read at one time - and it can begin to blur, particularly if the poet only seems to have one theme or style
- whether it is deemed necessary or desirable by others, I need to have some understanding of a poem. I don't want it tied up in a bow, but I need something...
- it's what's common between me and the poet that is important to me - the poet's individual experience may not be something I've experienced, but there's something there which I can relate to - and that is not about specifics - gender, sexuality, trauma... but about human feelings - loss, love, fear...
- titles can really put me off poems. For example, I'm a woman and not squeamish, but I'm still put off by the title 'Ode to menstrual blood' - Sharon Olds
- I like it when the form of a poem and its repetitions and rhythms draw me in and hold me and engulf me and I can feel it - all of which is true of the poems in Alice Oswald's Falling Awake
- I like lines that jump out and grab me - which is also true of the poems in Alice Oswald's Falling Awake
- I'm interested in how humour can reveal and disguise so much - and how well similes and metaphors can work with it - Hera Lindsay Bird
- there is so much out there!
- there needs to be more joy in poetry
Enough! I'm going for a lie-down on the piles of books and magazines I've read and the copious scribbled notes I've written which may one day turn into poems. And when the weather improves, and the other 'stuff' which is currently invading my life and my poetry allows it, I'm going to go out for a walk and watch birds and take some photographs and return to my perennial quest to capture all the joy that gives me.
My thanks to all those who have given me support online - I really appreciate it.
So much to read, so little time - but I'm glad I've spent time reading this - and that it will be there for me to return to as I carry on writing. Things I particularly liked/found useful:
- it's practical, down-to-earth and realistic
- there are detailed ways to improve your writing - stage by stage - and exercises/ideas to try
- different perspectives are given - which is refreshing - and although the writers are all very well qualified to give advice, they in no way assert that theirs is the only view
- progression - it helps you think about where you want to be and how to give yourself the best chance of getting there
- it gives additional resources for reading, writing and getting your poetry out there
I think it's really difficult to balance encouragement with realism. Certainly if anyone thought this poetry business is easy they'd be in for a shock. The writers do keep reiterating the positive, just in case you were staggering under the weight of the reality and work involved. It's also written with humour and conveys the creative satisfaction poetry can bring - but it's still about the work.
As it says in The Final Word, I'd better get on with it.
There are already good reviews of this book available. This is just a personal reflection on it.
I found it a very challenging book - it challenged my perceptions and my own sense of identity. I found myself becoming angry, sad, and scribbling madly about what I read of the poets' different experiences and perceptions, and then - and it surprised me, and shouldn't have - I started to rethink who I was and wasn't, how I identified myself to myself and to others, and why...
Self-identification and the individual experience are the key positive things for me in this book - and the understanding of that experience. Note, I did say for me - because the voices in the collection, and the experiences and perceptions are, of course, diverse, and although there are some common themes, there are also striking differences - in tone, outlook, purpose...
It shouldn't take to the third paragraph to say it (though the book, in a way, does have that effect), but there is some absolutely stunning poetry in this book. I did (slightly) know some of the poets already, but there are other poets who I didn't know, and will now be keenly looking out for. I am not going to specify.
One thing I have not done here is to say anything about my own experiences in the context of this book. But what occurred to me, as I thought about the book, and writing this, is what assumptions would someone make - from what I've written, from my name, and from my photo on this blog? Like the book, it makes you think.
If you compare me to a summer's day
or say I walk in beauty like the night
and gather rosebuds for me while ye may
and stay the world enough to make it right
And if you've walked on England's mountains green
and did a stately pleasure-dome decree
and floating high, the daffodils have seen
and thus arisen, gone to Innisfree
If full of care, you still have time to stare
or walking, take the road less travelled by
and find that the express-train drew up there
and tell me 'let us go then, you and I'
If you are only larking when you wave
and are my moon, my midnight and my song
and wear your slippers in the rain and save
your love for me - my love, you can't go wrong!
This was posted with a tweet saying that I had been reading a lot of poetry recently and thought it was affecting my own work, ie it was a joke. It originated from my own and others' expressed concern that it was hard not to be influenced by reading other people's poetry - though this wasn't what I, or hopefully they, meant. It also came from someone saying to me that poetry didn't sell - you couldn't write a 'blockbuster' poem - and wondering what did 'sell' well in poetry - at least in the sense that people knew and/or liked the poem. 'If' was the most obvious example I could think of - and the other poems referenced might also fall into the 'known' category. Hope so. It is also an example of me in 'flippant' mood - when I break away from my apparent norm of writing rather darker poetry - see previous post.
