Poetry Dogma

[wildsweetone]

To be upfront and honest I have a huge 'thing' about poetry that still sits in the back of my mind.

When at school as a teen, one of my English teachers smacked my interest for poetry right out of my system, by telling me constantly that I had misunderstood what different pieces of poetry were about. Basically, from then on poetry has held that 'I can't do it' feeling for me, so I've left it alone. It wasn't until last year when I worked through a Creative Writing course that held a poetry component, that I allowed myself to open up and read poetry again. Then, just to add more shock to my system, I found I enjoyed writing it too.

Unfortunately I still carry around with me that scary feeling of 'what if I completely misunderstand the poet's intentions?'.

Does anyone else here have this feeling or any other scary 'challenges' about poetry or am I an utter oddball?

 

[tolyk]

There are very few things in this world that aren't open to any sort of personal interpretation. We each feel differently about almost everything, why should poetry be excluded ?

I've been called an idiot before by getting a completely different meaning out of a poem than another reader did. (The reader said it, not the writer) I just shrugged and told them they could interpret it however they wanted too and I would too. The author meant something completely different than either of us got from it.

 

[wildsweetone]

You should see what I got from some of Shakespeare stuff I looked at last year. lol


I don't often see metaphores when they're obscure - they have to be pretty much in the face for me to get them within a couple of readings, otherwise I just don't see them until someone explains the alternative meaning of the poem to me.

 

[tolyk]

You should see what I got from some of Shakespeare stuff I looked at last year. lol


I don't often see metaphores when they're obscure - they have to be pretty much in the face for me to get them within a couple of readings, otherwise I just don't see them until someone explains the alternative meaning of the poem to me.

I know what you mean, I have trouble getting most metaphores actually, and writing them for that matter. Even though I've always had a very active imagination.. it boggles my mind.

 

[bluerains]

until

about 8 years ago I never considered ever writing a poem..and then I went thru some morphic changes and a quickening that has left me with this urge to write harmony and love and bliss and sexual satisfaction...before then I was a different creature dead amid the masses of normal...dead...and yes..I am oft times at odds with what is good poetry and what means this...thanks to those like quietpoet who went to rumsey and has language as his second nature..he has helped me develop my thoughts and ideas...we all have special gifts to share with the world and I feel that that is the key...experience...the rest will flow in spirit essence....just dance,,,play and be....happy...in sex in love in all that is excellent....blue

 

[twelveoone]

To be upfront and honest I have a huge 'thing' about poetry that still sits in the back of my mind.

When at school as a teen, one of my English teachers smacked my interest for poetry right out of my system, by telling me constantly that I had misunderstood what different pieces of poetry were about. Basically, from then on poetry has held that 'I can't do it' feeling for me, so I've left it alone. It wasn't until last year when I worked through a Creative Writing course that held a poetry component, that I allowed myself to open up and read poetry again. Then, just to add more shock to my system, I found I enjoyed writing it too.

Unfortunately I still carry around with me that scary feeling of 'what if I completely misunderstand the poet's intentions?'.

Does anyone else here have this feeling or any other scary 'challenges' about poetry or am I an utter oddball?

A big assumption, that the poet will be honest about his intention, or completely understands his intention (let alone someone else).Someone caught me on a misspelling, I checked, realized it was a "Freudian slip". Just write, learn the tricks (excuse me, the techniques). Try to make the words do what you want. There are always two people doing the writing, you just have to polish, explain the other.

 

[The_Fool]

I was told at nineteen that my poetry was pretty lacking by a college professor. Rather than point out the errors of my ways, he left it at that. So I quit writing poetry for twenty years.

I still question myself with every poem I write. But I still write them.

 

[wildsweetone]

bluerains, I think you've touched on something that's important to me... the ability to freely write whatever my mind/body wishes to be written. I think reading is an important part of the writing process, but writing itself is the number one factor for me. Allowing myself the ability to write is allowing that essence to flow, I have learnt that much.

1201 you make a lot of sense too. I know that there have been times when I've written something myself and not noticed certain points about the writing or how it comes together that others have seen clearly. Sometimes alliteration, or that partial rhyming that I hope one day to achieve, sometimes an underlying meaning brought out by a few select words. It's great to be able to have the ability to see all of these things. I know I'm stunned when something falls together so perfectly as if it never should have been parted. I simply assume all the Great Poets knew and understood every single nuance of their work. Interesting to think they might have been as fallible as me.

Fool, I am sorry your teacher squashed your poetry ability too. I am trying hard to think that perhaps with all the years away from poetry that perhaps my own life experiences have helped enhance my new found learning of poetry... Some days it certainly seems like my eyes have been opened very wide. (I pray that I never do things like this with the kids I teach.)

 

[impressive]

Poetry is like abstract art.

That doesn't mean that a poet HAS to write in obscure metaphor ... just that interpretations will always vary from one person to the next.

Write. Share. Be.

 

[Tathagata]

I had a friend who was an English major.
he explained to me what everything meant and what was a metaphor and what was an allusion to what etc etc.
I told him if I was worried about finding all that I'd never enjoy a book.

I think some writers write for those people, just as some jazz musicians play certain things that only other musicians will get.

That doesn't mean they all do and I don't think a lot of writers spend their time trying to hide obscure clues in what they write.
I remember when the Talking Heads came out with the " Remain in Light" album.
I was heavy into Zen literature at the time and could draw all these parallels between the lyrics and Zen ritual and enlightenment.
Just goes to show you what a few joints and a head full of preconceived notions can do.

Just write and if some one asks you if your reference to Dali's melting clock painting was intentional just smile and say " everything is intentional"

 

[flyguy69]

I had a friend who was an English major.
he explained to me what everything meant and what was a metaphor and what was an allusion to what etc etc.
I told him if I was worried about finding all that I'd never enjoy a book.

I think some writers write for those people, just as some jazz musicians play certain things that only other musicians will get.

That doesn't mean they all do and I don't think a lot of writers spend their time trying to hide obscure clues in what they write.
I remember when the Talking Heads came out with the " Remain in Light" album.
I was heavy into Zen literature at the time and could draw all these parallels between the lyrics and Zen ritual and enlightenment.
Just goes to show you what a few joints and a head full of preconceived notions can do.

Just write and if some one asks you if your reference to Dali's melting clock painting was intentional just smile and say " everything is intentional"

If you play "Remain in Light" backwards in a room full of bong smoke you hear that David Byrne was the monkey.

 

[Tathagata]

If you play "Remain in Light" backwards in a room full of bong smoke you hear that David Byrne was the monkey.

but John was still the Walrus

goo goo ga joob

 

[Angeline]

but John was still the Walrus

goo goo ga joob

wait. i thought john was the eggman. who was paul--besides the cute one.

 

[Tathagata]

wait. i thought john was the eggman. who was paul--besides the cute one.

Ugh
don't get me started on Paul

 

[Angeline]

Ugh
don't get me started on Paul

I know. Well, he has a good voice.

 

[Angeline]

To be upfront and honest I have a huge 'thing' about poetry that still sits in the back of my mind.

When at school as a teen, one of my English teachers smacked my interest for poetry right out of my system, by telling me constantly that I had misunderstood what different pieces of poetry were about. Basically, from then on poetry has held that 'I can't do it' feeling for me, so I've left it alone. It wasn't until last year when I worked through a Creative Writing course that held a poetry component, that I allowed myself to open up and read poetry again. Then, just to add more shock to my system, I found I enjoyed writing it too.

Unfortunately I still carry around with me that scary feeling of 'what if I completely misunderstand the poet's intentions?'.

Does anyone else here have this feeling or any other scary 'challenges' about poetry or am I an utter oddball?

I think that one of the great failures of public education--at least in the USA where I experienced it--is that it does not encourage children to be intelligent in an open-minded way. The result (besides general illiteracy here anyway) is that kids think there's one way to write, one way to understand a piece of literature (in any genre) thematically. And yes it is important to have a foundation, to know historically how writing x has been interpreted, but to suggest that there's only one way is, to my mind, to misunderstand literature entirely. The interaction between a reader and a writer is not limited to the writer's ability to communicate, but extends to the reader's ability to mesh his or her own experiences with what the writer is trying to say. And everyone's experience is different, so everyone's interpretation will be somewhat different. To suggest anything else confuses kids and makes them think literature (and, in fact, writing in general) is this lofty unattainable ideal when just the opposite is true.

Um in other words, I agree.

 

[wildsweetone]

...The interaction between a reader and a writer is not limited to the writer's ability to communicate, but extends to the reader's ability to mesh his or her own experiences with what the writer is trying to say. And everyone's experience is different, so everyone's interpretation will be somewhat different. ...

Perhaps that's the most important aspect of being creative.

To allow others to have their own experiences with our writing, and vice versa.

 

[flyguy69]

I think that one of the great failures of public education...
[blah blah blah]

Um in other words, I agree.

I'll bet a private-school kid could have said that far more succinctly.