11-20-2012, 05:04 AM
There is a cadence of ideas and feelings too, right?, like in so-called free verse. Even if the rhythm of the actual words and lines are all over the place, or even if the subject matter seems to be all over the place: you can still try to craft meaning and experience itself. That's what I've tried to do many times. People might not like that I do that, or wonder why I'd want to do that. But it's what I prefer to do. Instead of concentrating on the proper grammar, or the direct use of crafting through meter and rhyme and even common sense logic, I like to use "feeling tone" rhythms of, say, verbose confusion then cliched obviousness, or racist redneck slang then African American slang, or very personal lines stuck in with very impersonal subjects and situations. I know these methods are bound to fail many times, but that's part of the enjoyment for me. Another example, if I throw in a very personal comment in a poem that hasn't the space or the information to show exactly what I'm alluding to: the point of it is simply to create a tone of being secretive or desperate, or of having the writer consider why I'd throw such a line in to the context of the poem. And in that case, while I might be the poet and the speaker in the poem, I'm still creating me-the speaker as a kind of double of me that lives in the poem. And that's why I've often told people, when discussing their poems and my poems, that I take it all as forming realities. But there is always that difference; I might write a biographical poem that says "I going to go to the store", but I would never actually say that: I'd say, "I'm gonna go to the store...", or, "I'm goin' to the store..."
The point of all this being that every element of a poem is obsessively considered by me, whether I'm supposed to be writing one, or giving a critique. And so these discussion threads are very important, and the personal ideas of the writer are naturally useful for reading their poems. Because no one here is going to tell you that you have to write poems only in certain ways, or critique in certain ways as long as you're making a genuine effort. Though there are sites online where they expect you to revise all your poems to their liking, and not say a word about your ideas and feelings about what you're trying to do. But I find it helpful to be able to discuss the critiques and the poems, and all the ideas and opinions of anyone that's taking part in the site. On some sites, there is no constructive critique, and on some there's no open discussion. This site is important because in depth discussions of poetry and poetry criticism are allowed and encouraged.
The point of all this being that every element of a poem is obsessively considered by me, whether I'm supposed to be writing one, or giving a critique. And so these discussion threads are very important, and the personal ideas of the writer are naturally useful for reading their poems. Because no one here is going to tell you that you have to write poems only in certain ways, or critique in certain ways as long as you're making a genuine effort. Though there are sites online where they expect you to revise all your poems to their liking, and not say a word about your ideas and feelings about what you're trying to do. But I find it helpful to be able to discuss the critiques and the poems, and all the ideas and opinions of anyone that's taking part in the site. On some sites, there is no constructive critique, and on some there's no open discussion. This site is important because in depth discussions of poetry and poetry criticism are allowed and encouraged.