Where does poetry come from?

Unique

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Where Does Poetry Come From?

Memory

For me, associative memory
 

Cassie88

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I think it comes from the need to be validated and understood. And sometimes, just the desire to have a conversation that might not otherwise be had... for whatever reasons..time, etc. and then most people would rather talk about who's going to win the Super Bowl or their Aunt Helen's operation.
It comes from the desire to be adventurous....the architect or mathematician in some of us...the child in us.
It comes from the wonder in us, the wonder we wish to keep alive and always, it comes from the pain in us. "I'm hurt and I've got to tell somebody."
I'm sure it's so much more, but that's all I can think of at this moment.
 

dahmnait

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Poetry doesn't "come" from anywhere. Poetry is borne. Poetry exists. It exists in the world around us and the worlds within us. It is the bridge that spans our subconscious to our consciousness. Poetry lives in each and everyone of us, poets are just able to vocalize those thoughts.
 

robeiae

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I tried three times to answer your question, William. But I couldn't bring anything to a conclusion that captures my answer. Maybe that's my answer: poetry comes from something you can't describe, and everyone has a different something.

Rob :)
 

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you have a very creative peepee, TC. Some people think the earth rotates on their peepee, I think creative peepees have more to offer sometimes than practical peepees. But then, there has to be balance, or we would all walk around with a bad equilibrium, and so, peepees find themselves coexisting with non peepees and they develope this beautiful language where they can express themselves and be understood, one to the other. I'm happy to know you have a creative peepee.

Poetry, I think, comes from the same place math comes from.
 

William Haskins

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i believe you're right, rob. and it's fascinating to see the responses here. if you manage to wrestle yours into words, please share it.
 

brokenfingers

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Poetry comes from emotion.

It is the transference, through the written word, of something that moves or inspires the writer - to a reader, thereby moving or inspiring them.
 

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tiny terror said:

I say, TT, I must agree.
If poetry comes from the same place as math, I might as well hang it up now. My math functions were flattened in the crib. Doomed.
 

brokenfingers

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Oddly enough, some of the most powerful poetry comes from an emotional hell. I've known many who did not feel the inspiration to write poetry unless upset or distraught.
 

William Haskins

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brokenfingers said:
Poetry comes from emotion.

It is the transference, through the written word, of something that moves or inspires the writer - to a reader, thereby moving or inspiring them.

okay, i like this answer (though i might quibble with it coming from emotion exclusively, and believe that it also can be borne of dispassionate intellect).

but operating on your definition, it seems that there are still multiple wellsprings.

certainly, one (as pointed out by unique) is memory.

i would suggest another is observation, whether pure imagist conveyance of it, or by placing it in some larger metaphorical context.

but, yes, definitely, emotion (or as wordsworth said: "poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings; it takes its origin in emotion recollected in tranquility.") is a very valid answer.
 

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Poetry is the music of the mind, I think. It comes from the same place music comes from.
 

dahmnait

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robeiae said:
I tried three times to answer your question, William. But I couldn't bring anything to a conclusion that captures my answer. Maybe that's my answer: poetry comes from something you can't describe, and everyone has a different something.

Rob :)
That is where my answer was coming from. I don't see poetry as 'coming' from any one place, and where it does reside is not quite tangible.
 

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If I can't formulate my thoughts into a standard paragraph, articulate them into an essay, or develop a conversation that will allow them to be explored adequately, I reach into what I consider horrible poetry.

When I read other people's poetry and know that it came from somewhere within them that didn't make an attempt to force it into some other format, I wonder what would happen if I tried using poetry first.

And then I go back to banging my head against the wall and am grateful that others do it much better than I.
 

brokenfingers

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William Haskins said:
okay, i like this answer (though i might quibble with it coming from emotion exclusively, and believe that it also can be borne of dispassionate intellect).

but operating on your definition, it seems that there are still multiple wellsprings.

certainly, one (as pointed out by unique) is memory.

i would suggest another is observation, whether pure imagist conveyance of it, or by placing it in some larger metaphorical context.

but, yes, definitely, emotion (or as wordsworth said: "poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings; it takes its origin in emotion recollected in tranquility.") is a very valid answer.
There's no doubt that emotion is but one ingredient in a poet's cauldron.

Some other things I think a good poet needs:

Intellect (the ability to reason and percieve the things around you),

self-knowledge (the ability to know yourself and what you are feeling),

percipience (the ability to know others and see what moves them, understand human nature)

and literacy (good vocabulary and writing skills)

Of course, JMHO.
 
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PrettySpecialGal

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Somewhere in there is the ability to make connections that not everyone can see until the poet articulates it.

As for poetry coming from the same place as music or math- hmmm.... I think it comes from everywhere- and the interconnection of it all. Probably different for each of us. Some find poetic moments in the tromped on soul, while others find it in the beauty of a glimpse of time.
 

poetinahat

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For me, oddly enough, I must start building the body before the soul will inhabit it. It isn't until after I start writing that I find out what the poem's really going to be about.

It may be that I think of the title first, or I decide on a structure, or there's just a line I want to put in it somewhere. But the topic or theme is seldom the first thing to come to mind.

I could argue that there are all sorts of unborn poems waiting for the right body to be built, but there's no way for me to know.
 

William Haskins

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brokenfingers said:
There's no doubt that emotion is but one ingredient in a poet's cauldron.

Some other things I think a good poet needs:

Intellect (the ability to reason and percieve the things around you),

self-knowledge (the ability to know yourself and what you are feeling),

percipience (the ability to know others and see what moves them, understand human nature)

and literacy (good vocabulary and writing skills)

Of course, JMHO.

great post.

another question that hit me... how is the writing process different when one is translating emotions or images that one has, respectively, felt or witnessed vs. constructing a poem to make an abstract idea concrete?

it would seem to me that in an observational work (or to some degree, an emotional work) we select or recall images that we can hang on a preexisting skeleton, a template, a chalk outline that we already have in our mind, while a philosophical work (for the lack of a better term) is more like creating from whole cloth, bringing it slowly into focus conceptually before languiage is capable of taking it from there.

just musing...