01-24-2012, 10:59 AM
(01-24-2012, 10:09 AM)Leanne Wrote: The reason I think the Kierkegaard quote is pertinent to poetry -- or indeed to all art -- is that art is an expression of the deeply personal. In effect, a poem is a person on a page for all eternity, or as long as it takes to scrunch it up for toilet paperAbout words and labels: I think it reasonable to say that nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs have a labelling effect. If I chatter away to you about 'my friend' and then throw in 'she' you are entitled to an 'aha!' moment: I have told you what my friend is not. But if you collect you kids from school, and someone refers to you as 'a mum' it says you are not some other relation, but leaves a whole blank canvas for the rest of what you. A few more words wibbll rough out a picture; but inevitably, no-one, not even the person themselves, can draw a complete picture. Extended to poetry, I see this. I does not much concern me, perhaps because there are relatively few people whose opinions I value-- notwithstanding that one gets insights from everywhere.I don't believe labels equate to words, it's the kind of words that worry me. For example, on some poetry sites when you post a poem they recommend that you also put it into a category -- I have always refused to do this. Categories seem flippant, a dismissal of any other possible reading.
If a poem is posted for critique or workshopping, I'm delighted to take it to pieces or have the same done to one of mine. In that crucial stage, breaking it into parts will ensure that the finished product is as flawless as possible -- however, once a poem is to be read for poetry's sake alone, I want to bloody well enjoy it (or hate it) and explanations be damned!
PS. There can be no Armagnac in evidence on Burns Night you know...
Yes, and one must enjoy what one enjoys, no matter what. I have never understood why people poke fun at others who say "I don't know anything about Art; but I know what I like." Why would they not? Should they somehow contrive to like something they are told to like--- for example, a second-rate Warhol exhibition?!!!
