08-10-2018, 01:34 AM
It's always good to know how to do things. But if it's a bore to you to practice the forms, then do something else. Poetry is more than verse. There is verse, and then there is poetry. They're not the same thing. If you're determined to master these historical 'forms', there's nothing in the world wrong with that. But just expect that there are hundreds of meter-experts in this world, helpful ones let me stress, who are all technique and no substance, who sit on our worldwide spiderweb waiting for a young fly to tie up and torture in their frustating, and frustrated, precise know-how. . . . I know I didn't answer your question, but that's not what I do.
Read great poets. And mostly only great poets. And bring your experience and sensations and thoughts to the dance. If you learn to read, and truly love reading as much as you love your sorrows and joys and dreams and neuroses and sex life or lack of, you'll find that whatever subject you're writing on, the form will come of its self. Or 'itself', as grammar nazis cold to linguistic nuance insist. The thing is to sound natural, and not forced into form. It never hurts to practice badly; in fact, it's going to help you more down the line. Our craft comes from our hardwork; our substance comes from the peculiar experiential effects of our failures and infused joys.
Read great poets. And mostly only great poets. And bring your experience and sensations and thoughts to the dance. If you learn to read, and truly love reading as much as you love your sorrows and joys and dreams and neuroses and sex life or lack of, you'll find that whatever subject you're writing on, the form will come of its self. Or 'itself', as grammar nazis cold to linguistic nuance insist. The thing is to sound natural, and not forced into form. It never hurts to practice badly; in fact, it's going to help you more down the line. Our craft comes from our hardwork; our substance comes from the peculiar experiential effects of our failures and infused joys.