Menu
 GotPoetry? Inside Community Forums Marketplace Reference Communication
User Info
Welcome Anonymous
 Membership:
 Latest: lexysman
 New Today: 2
 New Yesterday: 5
 Overall: 9901
People Online:
 Members: 5
 Visitors: 195
Bots: 3
 Staff: 0
Staff Online:No staff currently online.
Paid Membership
Buy a paid membership and get more out of GotPoetry!
Advertise on the GotPoetry Advertising Network.
Get Published
|
Zero Point Zero: How I Think About A Poem
I'm going to skip analysis of a single poem for this column.
I think I might have jumped the gun a bit last time by not including some notes as to what I look for and think about when I'm writing a poem. Based on some of the comments I've seen here and elsewhere, I think that people are not used to thinking about some of the traditional dimensions people think about when looking at a poem -- you know, all that boring stuff you learned in school. One of the down sides of the modern poetry explosion is that people have, in the rush to express themselves, lost sight of the fact that those techniques of alliteration, metaphor, and all the rest are used precisely to enhance that personal expression -- in other words, to ensure that the craft of the poem enhances the voice of the poem.
Toward that end, here's a brief primer on some of the way I look at my work from a technical standpoint.
Beginning the poem: voice versus craft
I am always thinking about poems, and I'm pretty prolific. They aren't all good , of course, but they get written. They come to me in one of two ways:
-- as a line that pulls me to write it down and keep writing until I can edit it into something, and thus discover the meaning of what I was writing on the other side of the process;
-- as a topic that I want to write about.
Always, there is the decision to be made regarding voice (what the poem says) and craft (how it is said). Sometimes the message of the poem is more critical than the level of craft (not often ) and the poem goes through few drafts; sometimes, the poem requires hard work to ensure that a complex idea or deep truth (or shallow truth, more likely with me) is precisely expressed.
Anyone who thinks a real poet is a warm and fuzzy, vague communicator is missing something; most of us work very hard to be razor sharp in our work. Hence, the next subject:
Imagery
Do the pictures and sounds in the poem make the best possible sense? I make sure that I use words like "beautiful" as little as possible, trying to create pictures and soundtracks for the reader/listener instead. I look for precise colors rather than, say, "red," or if I have to say "red" I make sure I include a comparison that gives the most accurate picture.
There are exceptions, of course; sometimes I choose to leave things slightly vague in order to make the reader work or add his or her own experience to the poem. I mentioned in comments to the last column that I sometimes use larger "leaps" between images than is strictly customary in order to trigger more subconscious/unconscious activity; while that's a good thing, it doesn't excuse me from writing deliberately obscure stuff and claiming it's deep.
Sound
As a performer, I'm very concerned with sound. I dig deep to ensure that vowel and consonant sounds do what they should -- a line like "astonished at a flash in heaven," for instance, may describe the same image as "surprised by a shooting star," but they sound very different when spoken aloud. There's a place for each of them; deciding which combination of assonance and alliteration will do the trick is a key pleasure and challenge for me.
One note: I'm personally awfully fond of internal rhyme (where the rhymes occur in the body of a line as opposed to the end), but when you see it in one of my poems, it's almost always unconscious. Kind of interesting -- at least to me.
Formatting and line breaks
Whether I use stanzas of a set number of lines or a more irregular form, I am always thinking about each stanza doing a particular piece of work toward the end result of the poem. They may not stand on their own as paragraphs per se, but each contributes some idea, some distinct thought or piece of information.
Line lengths are almost completely ruled by the rule of "natural breath:" if there's a natural pause or breath to be taken, you can pretty much assume that's where I break the line. Of course, there's flexibility there too -- one reading of the poem may break its lines in one place, another someplace else. S'ok. That's the beauty of interpretation; one reader reads it one way, another reads it another. My job is to give you my meaning, and to do it in a way that makes clear my intent; but there's always room for someone to look at it a different way.
Revision and editing
See all that stuff I did above? It keeps happening over and over again. After a poem is done, I put it away, come back to it, go through it again. I post it somewhere -- here and/or on Livejournal; I take responses, decide if they are valid, and look at the poem again; maybe fiddle some more with it. When I read it out loud for the first time, I edit on the fly to make it sound the best it can be, and then edit again on page.
When's it done? Almost never. Someone smart once said that no poem is ever finished, only abandoned. I don't abandon many, and most of the time it's only after years and years of reading it to myself and out loud.
It's not difficult to understand the basics of poetics, although it can take a lifetime to master; but even if you are not a professional poet and only write for your own pleasure, a little attention to them can help you to get more enjoyment from the process and the results.
Submitted by Tony on Tuesday, March 14, 2006 (22:48:11) (1424 reads)
|
| "Features: Zero Point Zero: How I Think About A Poem" | Login/Create an Account | 4 comments |
|
|
| The comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content. |
 |
Re: Zero Point Zero: How I Think About A Poem
(Score: 1 )
by Gambit on Wednesday, March 15, 2006 (17:23:27) |
Tony,
Thanks for giving us a deeper peek into your process. The days of dry academic approaches to the subject of poetry feel over, and much needed discussions of craft, like this, stand to help a lot. In a similar vein, I'm currently reading Richard Hugo's The Triggering Town.
A few quick questions, in no particular order, if you have the time to elaborate.
- You mentioned lines, but how do you approach stanzas? Or, do they approach you, in a sense, similar to how breath helps govern your line lengths?
- Are the sounds that you look for in a poem strategically close to that of everyday conversation, but heigtened? Happy accidents? Or, do you take a more classical approach to sound?
- Besides overused words, do you avoid, or seek out, anything else in your image construction?
- I have trouble straying from grammar's confines, but truly enjoy poetry that can break those bonds. Any thoughts? Do you try to always write in complete sentences? If not, how do you make use of punctuation?
Thanks,
Gambit
 |
Re: Zero Point Zero: How I Think About A Poem
(Score: 1 )
by hotstuff on Wednesday, March 15, 2006 (23:29:38) |
Great breakdown Tony, thanks for the "inside" info  I tend to be a little fanatic about those things  USUALLY lol Always room for improvement, and I love viewing my poetry in others eyes...try to figure out how one may take it. Great stuff 
|
Related Links
Article Rating
Average Score: 5
Votes: 2
Spread the word
Options
Discussion
|
Previous: zero point zero: Sneakers on Wires
Re: NBC Seasons Black History Month Lunch With Racism
You can syndicate other parts of our site using the following files:
