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What are your goals as a poet? Do you just like writing, or do you have an objective? Are you happy with how you write? Do you ever revise?
I ask because I've decided that everything I've written to date -- everything -- needs revision, or at least a review.
I'm happy with that, because it's no longer enough for me to have written a poem. I want my poems to be as well-written as I can make them. If they're not worth saving, I'll hide them and keep them as compost for other poems.
As you may notice, I've been pretty quiet lately. There are a couple of reasons:
1) I lost heart - didn't feel like writing
2) I didn't feel like I was giving adequate attention to critiques, and I wasn't helping anyone
I'm reading a couple of books that are helping. They're inspiring and enabling me to be a better poet and critic, and I think the two roles are irrevocably fused.
--------------
The first book:
- A Poetry Home Repair Manual*, by Ted Kooser
This book is useful and insightful, and it is, happily, an easy delight to read. Kooser enables the reader to look at what he sees as the significant aspects of poetry, and he makes his points very clearly. He enables the reader to identify with him. The language is unpretentious, but beautiful at the same time; even his prose has a poetic aspect. That, as much as anything, shows me what Kooser thinks about the importance of the right words in the right order.
Furthermore, he deals not only with writing and reading poetry; he addresses the prospect of publishing poems (he cites an annually published list of publishers and periodicals, and discusses strategies), and the notion of writing poetry for a living (which he dismisses realistically).
My only reservation about the book is not a fault, but an observation. It doesn't deal much with formal poetry -- in that sense, there's a bit of a sameness to the examples he uses, although they are all excellent and always appropriate to the topic. I get the feeling that he favors a certain style and period of poetry, which we often do, whether or not we mean to. In fairness, he says at the outset that he doesn't address structured forms, and he recommends other books that do so.
Overall, A Poetry Home Repair Manual is a splendid introduction to poetry for people who are, or would be, poets. I'm keeping it on hand, and I'll reread it as I revise.
*: Amusing anecdote: When my wife first saw the book, she furrowed her brow and asked, "What's that about?" After some discussion, it emerged that she thought it was a DIY manual written in verse. Since then, I've determined to write "An Ode to Dovetail Joints" and "Pair o' Dice Lost (in an S-Bend)".
--------
The second book:
- Eighty Great Poems, from Chaucer to Now, by Geoff Page
I'm only eight poems into this volume, but it's eminently absorbing. Page, an Australian poet and professor, lists and discusses eighty poems from throughout history. He doesn't claim that these poems are The Greatest, but that they all are Great, and that they're worthy of consideration. He discusses, with vast knowledge, insight, and good humour, what it is about each poem that makes it both great and memorable: why it is, for example, that it's still remembered after centuries. He's good at putting the poems in their original context, discussing what the poets might have been thinking, and exposing how their various techniques (use of form, or deliberate deviations from form) are effective.
This book has been eminently illuminating to me so far. It encourages me to reread my poems and hold them to the same standard that I would hold poems by any master.
---------
Both of these books have encouraged me to give much more serious thought not just to my own poems, but to yours as I read them.
But, as Mr Kooser would remind me, it's not enough to read about how to write poems, or how to read them. The writing is necessary. Even if it's bad.
With that in mind, I'm reintroducing myself to the forum, and wishing you all well with your poetry.
I ask because I've decided that everything I've written to date -- everything -- needs revision, or at least a review.
I'm happy with that, because it's no longer enough for me to have written a poem. I want my poems to be as well-written as I can make them. If they're not worth saving, I'll hide them and keep them as compost for other poems.
As you may notice, I've been pretty quiet lately. There are a couple of reasons:
1) I lost heart - didn't feel like writing
2) I didn't feel like I was giving adequate attention to critiques, and I wasn't helping anyone
I'm reading a couple of books that are helping. They're inspiring and enabling me to be a better poet and critic, and I think the two roles are irrevocably fused.
--------------
The first book:
- A Poetry Home Repair Manual*, by Ted Kooser
This book is useful and insightful, and it is, happily, an easy delight to read. Kooser enables the reader to look at what he sees as the significant aspects of poetry, and he makes his points very clearly. He enables the reader to identify with him. The language is unpretentious, but beautiful at the same time; even his prose has a poetic aspect. That, as much as anything, shows me what Kooser thinks about the importance of the right words in the right order.
Furthermore, he deals not only with writing and reading poetry; he addresses the prospect of publishing poems (he cites an annually published list of publishers and periodicals, and discusses strategies), and the notion of writing poetry for a living (which he dismisses realistically).
My only reservation about the book is not a fault, but an observation. It doesn't deal much with formal poetry -- in that sense, there's a bit of a sameness to the examples he uses, although they are all excellent and always appropriate to the topic. I get the feeling that he favors a certain style and period of poetry, which we often do, whether or not we mean to. In fairness, he says at the outset that he doesn't address structured forms, and he recommends other books that do so.
Overall, A Poetry Home Repair Manual is a splendid introduction to poetry for people who are, or would be, poets. I'm keeping it on hand, and I'll reread it as I revise.
*: Amusing anecdote: When my wife first saw the book, she furrowed her brow and asked, "What's that about?" After some discussion, it emerged that she thought it was a DIY manual written in verse. Since then, I've determined to write "An Ode to Dovetail Joints" and "Pair o' Dice Lost (in an S-Bend)".
--------
The second book:
- Eighty Great Poems, from Chaucer to Now, by Geoff Page
I'm only eight poems into this volume, but it's eminently absorbing. Page, an Australian poet and professor, lists and discusses eighty poems from throughout history. He doesn't claim that these poems are The Greatest, but that they all are Great, and that they're worthy of consideration. He discusses, with vast knowledge, insight, and good humour, what it is about each poem that makes it both great and memorable: why it is, for example, that it's still remembered after centuries. He's good at putting the poems in their original context, discussing what the poets might have been thinking, and exposing how their various techniques (use of form, or deliberate deviations from form) are effective.
This book has been eminently illuminating to me so far. It encourages me to reread my poems and hold them to the same standard that I would hold poems by any master.
---------
Both of these books have encouraged me to give much more serious thought not just to my own poems, but to yours as I read them.
But, as Mr Kooser would remind me, it's not enough to read about how to write poems, or how to read them. The writing is necessary. Even if it's bad.
With that in mind, I'm reintroducing myself to the forum, and wishing you all well with your poetry.
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