Sources of Poetic Inspiration

[jdeirmend]

Ray & Jdvan,

Thanks both for chiming in. In light of Ray's remarks, I feel slightly embarrassed over my diatribe. All the more reason to leave it up, and let the tomatoes hit me.

Sometimes, I see the way some people write on here, with a sort of unselfconscious grace that I feel often incapable of imitating, and I wonder what the fuck my problem is.

I guess the best remedy is probably just to laugh at myself.

---

Maybe all poetic composition is just a revolt, a defense against the anxiety that is endemic to human life, a scream in the dark towards one's own finitude, a rally cry against the inevitability of death.

Though I wouldn't call poetic composition a revolt myself (I don't necessarily feel that creation has to be an agressive act), I do recognize that it's often a way of coming to terms with death. The act of writing then is a way to find some sort of comfort for oneself, and hopefully some comfort for the reader as well. If artists in general have a "role" then I would say it's just that: as a comforter to others. Of course this doesn't mean that poems should be all mushy and "happily ever after", quite the contrary, I often find a lot of relief interacting with bleak and/or ambiguous art.

Great insights. Nietzsche agrees:

"If, in everything he does, he considers the ultimate aimlessness of men, his own activity acquires the character of squandering in his eyes. But to feel squandered as mankind (and not just as an individual), as we see the single blossom squandered by nature, is a feeling above all feelings.
But who is capable of it? Certainly only a poet--and poets always know how to comfort themselves."

- Human, All Too Human