The Purpose of Poetry

[Grace]

I found an article (below) that asks the question "Should poems tell the truth". I found it interesting reading, so thought would share it. G.

http://poems.com/special_features/prose/..._truth.php

That was a good article. It reminded of a poem I wrote that had some pretty intense parts to it, but what surprised me was the part that people got most pissed off about (I'm not talking about any critique just reaction). Here are the lines that people couldn't get their head around.

I write lies that might be true, but

still lies. Memories that aren’t 
as clear as I remember 
but are somehow more true.


~~~
Out of context, its so minor. A lot of people seem to have this idea that poets have to be truthful. They get angry when they're not.

I think the following is an example of a poem that was written to invite the reader to find a truth (or not).
Is this a category of poem?


The Journey

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice--
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do--
determined to save
the only life you could save.

Mary Oliver  (Dream Work)