On Poetry
Writing a poem is, honestly, often about vibes. No, really. How a poem makes a reader feel is the most important thing—although, exactly what those feelings are is outside of the poet’s control.
But a good poem—which is to say, an effective poem—makes a reader feel something. That is the goal. That is always the goal. That’s how I know if I’ve done it right. If I’ve done it extremely well, the reader will feel what I intended them to feel.
But as with all writing, intention doesn’t matter, so much as the words on the page and what they do. (Death of the author theory and all that.) The poem speaks for itself, even if I can speak about it.
I was taught, and I believe, that every interpretation of a poem is valid, as long as the words can be used to back up that interpretation. Take E.E. Cummings’ “somewhere,I have never travelled gladly beyond” as a good example. It reads like someone talking about their beloved, right? A person with small hands who has the speaker entirely enthralled.
Now, what if I told you the speaker is talking about a baby? Small hands can also be a child. And that idea is backed up by the text itself, the meaning justified. That is absolute valid.
But writing a poem is almost never the same experience twice. Sometimes, I start with a single opening line that popped into my head. Sometimes, I sit down thinking, “I’m going to write about X.” (X is usually a feeling, but sometimes, it’s a situation.) When I do that, does X come out effortlessly onto the page? Very rarely. Sometimes, something entirely different pours out, and I follow that instead. Then I’ll try to write X again, later. Sometimes, I’ll write three poems that have nothing to do with X at all, and that’s still a pretty damn good day.
Writing, too, is a lot like exorcism. When the world is a lot or I’m overwhelmed, the feelings have to go somewhere—so why not put them into a poem? Why not hurl them on the page and see what form they morph into? As Nora Ephron said, “everything is copy.” Every goddamn heartbeat, heartbreak, bit of love, torrent of confusion—use it.
Because the best poems, at least for me, always come out of the most honest spaces. The ideas or tendrils of grief I don’t want to look at. The love that I have to glance at sideways, because I can’t stare it fully in the face. The messy bits, the hards ones. The soft hopes and the absolutely feral ones. Everything you have ever felt, everything you’ve ever thought about, witnessed, noticed, scribbled on your heart—it goes into the work.
Because no poem springs, fully formed, out of a hat. (Looking at you, AI assholes.) Each comes out of a person, and while the poet is not to be confused with the speaker of the poem, the poet informs the poem. You could ask a hundred poets to write about a sunset, and you would get a hundred wildly different poems. A single poet could write about the same feeling their entire life and create innumerable poems. The possibilities are endless.
Lastly, since I’m prattling on quite a bit, form is about rhythm. Poetry is not meant to be read line to line, but punctuation mark to punctuation mark, with each having it’s own pause length or full stop or emphasis. An ellipsis functions differently than a comma or even an em dash. Once I’ve drafted a poem, I read it out loud to see what need to be tweaked: is that word the best I could do? Do I need a line break there? What happens if I italicize that word?
Sometimes, I’ll realize a line or whole stanza isn’t necessary. It doesn’t quite fit. Those darling deaths are instant, no mercy—which was not always the case. I used to be precious about things, but now it’s, “What best serves the poem?”
Got poetry questions? Email, reply to this, or leave me a comment! I’m happy to answer.
Bits and Bobs
Sweet Day is running a buy two, get one free special for the end of summer. I adore their candy, so you should definitely snag yourself some. Supporting a queer-owned small business is also a delight.
The Cosmic Background is running its yearly fundraiser!! Kick in if you can and share on the socials, if you wouldn’t mind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yjzjcp6gLHg&list=RDYjzjcp6gLHg&start_radio=1