Poetry: The Great Unknown
Some poets can write down
Entire worlds of meaning
In four lines of poetry.
Can I ever do that?
That is a poem I came up with one day when I was thinking about poetry. It was mostly meant to be an amusing poem, but in some ways it really does show what poetry is all about. In fact, there probably are entire worlds of meaning in those four lines of poetry: the ability to do something one does not know he can do, having role models, doubting one's own capacity, etc. There are probably many more that others could come up with.
There are some questions that I had to deal with in my year of learning poetry in Dr. Goodman's Modern Poetry class. What is poetry? What is the difference between poetry and prose? How does one find meaning in poetry? How do I write poetry?
Perhaps those first two questions are the most important--and the most difficult. What is poetry, exactly? What makes a bunch of words a poem, and not a prose piece or something else? I tried to answer that question early on in my poetry class... and all I got out of it was a check-minus on a paper on the subject. Now, with the rest of the class having passed me by, I think I understand the nature of poetry better.
However, I still don't quite understand poetry. In fact, I must admit I really don't understand poetry at all. What I do know is this: Poetry is that which cannot be understood. This is not a statement coming from some bitter person who's just really frustrated that he got a B in a poetry class. If I could say anything about what poetry is, I would say that it is the description of something, somewhere, someone, or some combination of the three, written in a way so that one cannot understand it through mere reading of it. Poetry is like that planet in another galaxy, yet undiscovered, just waiting for some Star Defender to take a spaceship past its atmosphere to unearth its secrets. There is a certain je ne sais quoi to poems: what do those poems really mean? Even if you discover one layer of meaning on the surface of the planet, you dig past that only to find a whole new world underground, still waiting to be discovered.
And that's poetry. It's exploring for those new worlds, searching for new secrets. It's not like you can't learn anything from prose, though. Prose can also teach you fascinating things about life; but it does so in a more direct way. Prose is like a tour guide showing you around a new planet. Poetry plunges you into a new planet with only a towel and forces you to check things out yourself. It's more adventurous and exciting at times.
Now, I won't say that prose is always clear and direct, allowing no room for further exploration. However, I think that oftentimes, prose can become poetic at times. There is such a thing as a prose poem, after all. In fact, this all is prose, but you could probably detect some poetry-like stuff in it already.
So now I've landed on the planet of poetry, and now I'm off to explore this planet. There's just one problem: How do I go about exploring? How to read a poem is the next big question in poetry. What does a poem mean? Well, what I've learned in my poetry class is this: A poem means whatever you think it means.
I've probably learned this primarily through writing my own poetry. Once I've read my work to others in my class, the discussion of my work starts... and they start pulling all sorts of things from my poems that I had never intended to put in there! Part of me wonders if maybe my subconscious had sneaked them in there without my conscious's knowing.
One particular experience contributed greatly to my knowledge of poetic interpretation. For one assignment in my poetry class, I chose to compose a musical interpretation of some of Walt Whitman's poetry. Converting the ideas in the poem to music helped me understand that I could only convert what I understood. One can only get out of a poem what he personally gets. If a certain allegory goes over a reader's head, that reader will not understand the significance of the allegory. If a certain poetic element, unintentionally placed by the poet, gets noticed by the reader, that reader can take something from that element, even though the poet didn't. A poem may be written by the poet, but it ultimately becomes the property of the reader.
This all means that when exploring the unknown planets of poems, there is no right or wrong way to explore. One discovers what one discovers. If you ask me, that makes the exploration of the planet far more exciting, since there are no limits imposed by rules and correct answers. Donald Hall puts it best in his memoir, "Life Work": "Each human division reads the same story; each responds from an opposite place." ("Life Work", pg. 22)
Writing poetry is something special. If reading poetry is like exploring new planets, then writing poetry is like making those new planets for others to explore! Indeed, sometimes, when I write my own poems, I feel like Slartibarfast, working on the shorelines of Norway, wondering how the humans to walk those beaches will enjoy the scenery. One thing that probably makes me different from many poets is that I don't like to spend a whole bunch of time fine-tuning a poem to become just the way I want it to be. I find that my best poetry comes from when I write from the heart, pouring out the soul of God into my poems, and adding a bit of humor in it for good measure. Then, once I'm done with the poem, I call it a day. And yet, my classmates still praise me for my work. I suppose that it's not necessary to pick on a poem over and over again... although even I go back and change something I didn't like here and there every once in a while.
I wonder what would be the look on Slartibarfast's face if he were to see an Earthling, walking along one of his shorelines, suddenly discover a cave that was not put there on purpose. This is what I find to be the greatest joy of writing poetry. I set up the planets for others to explore, and then someone finds something I didn't know I even put there! Sometimes, I write a poem just to see what others can find. I am only the maker; the reader explores the planet.
Poetry really is wonderful. Reading poetry is like exploring new and unusual planets; writing it is like making new and unusual planets. My grade in my poetry class is not that important. Far more important is the lesson I learned about poetry.
Entire worlds of meaning
In four lines of poetry.
Can I ever do that?
That is a poem I came up with one day when I was thinking about poetry. It was mostly meant to be an amusing poem, but in some ways it really does show what poetry is all about. In fact, there probably are entire worlds of meaning in those four lines of poetry: the ability to do something one does not know he can do, having role models, doubting one's own capacity, etc. There are probably many more that others could come up with.
There are some questions that I had to deal with in my year of learning poetry in Dr. Goodman's Modern Poetry class. What is poetry? What is the difference between poetry and prose? How does one find meaning in poetry? How do I write poetry?
Perhaps those first two questions are the most important--and the most difficult. What is poetry, exactly? What makes a bunch of words a poem, and not a prose piece or something else? I tried to answer that question early on in my poetry class... and all I got out of it was a check-minus on a paper on the subject. Now, with the rest of the class having passed me by, I think I understand the nature of poetry better.
However, I still don't quite understand poetry. In fact, I must admit I really don't understand poetry at all. What I do know is this: Poetry is that which cannot be understood. This is not a statement coming from some bitter person who's just really frustrated that he got a B in a poetry class. If I could say anything about what poetry is, I would say that it is the description of something, somewhere, someone, or some combination of the three, written in a way so that one cannot understand it through mere reading of it. Poetry is like that planet in another galaxy, yet undiscovered, just waiting for some Star Defender to take a spaceship past its atmosphere to unearth its secrets. There is a certain je ne sais quoi to poems: what do those poems really mean? Even if you discover one layer of meaning on the surface of the planet, you dig past that only to find a whole new world underground, still waiting to be discovered.
And that's poetry. It's exploring for those new worlds, searching for new secrets. It's not like you can't learn anything from prose, though. Prose can also teach you fascinating things about life; but it does so in a more direct way. Prose is like a tour guide showing you around a new planet. Poetry plunges you into a new planet with only a towel and forces you to check things out yourself. It's more adventurous and exciting at times.
Now, I won't say that prose is always clear and direct, allowing no room for further exploration. However, I think that oftentimes, prose can become poetic at times. There is such a thing as a prose poem, after all. In fact, this all is prose, but you could probably detect some poetry-like stuff in it already.
So now I've landed on the planet of poetry, and now I'm off to explore this planet. There's just one problem: How do I go about exploring? How to read a poem is the next big question in poetry. What does a poem mean? Well, what I've learned in my poetry class is this: A poem means whatever you think it means.
I've probably learned this primarily through writing my own poetry. Once I've read my work to others in my class, the discussion of my work starts... and they start pulling all sorts of things from my poems that I had never intended to put in there! Part of me wonders if maybe my subconscious had sneaked them in there without my conscious's knowing.
One particular experience contributed greatly to my knowledge of poetic interpretation. For one assignment in my poetry class, I chose to compose a musical interpretation of some of Walt Whitman's poetry. Converting the ideas in the poem to music helped me understand that I could only convert what I understood. One can only get out of a poem what he personally gets. If a certain allegory goes over a reader's head, that reader will not understand the significance of the allegory. If a certain poetic element, unintentionally placed by the poet, gets noticed by the reader, that reader can take something from that element, even though the poet didn't. A poem may be written by the poet, but it ultimately becomes the property of the reader.
This all means that when exploring the unknown planets of poems, there is no right or wrong way to explore. One discovers what one discovers. If you ask me, that makes the exploration of the planet far more exciting, since there are no limits imposed by rules and correct answers. Donald Hall puts it best in his memoir, "Life Work": "Each human division reads the same story; each responds from an opposite place." ("Life Work", pg. 22)
Writing poetry is something special. If reading poetry is like exploring new planets, then writing poetry is like making those new planets for others to explore! Indeed, sometimes, when I write my own poems, I feel like Slartibarfast, working on the shorelines of Norway, wondering how the humans to walk those beaches will enjoy the scenery. One thing that probably makes me different from many poets is that I don't like to spend a whole bunch of time fine-tuning a poem to become just the way I want it to be. I find that my best poetry comes from when I write from the heart, pouring out the soul of God into my poems, and adding a bit of humor in it for good measure. Then, once I'm done with the poem, I call it a day. And yet, my classmates still praise me for my work. I suppose that it's not necessary to pick on a poem over and over again... although even I go back and change something I didn't like here and there every once in a while.
I wonder what would be the look on Slartibarfast's face if he were to see an Earthling, walking along one of his shorelines, suddenly discover a cave that was not put there on purpose. This is what I find to be the greatest joy of writing poetry. I set up the planets for others to explore, and then someone finds something I didn't know I even put there! Sometimes, I write a poem just to see what others can find. I am only the maker; the reader explores the planet.
Poetry really is wonderful. Reading poetry is like exploring new and unusual planets; writing it is like making new and unusual planets. My grade in my poetry class is not that important. Far more important is the lesson I learned about poetry.
posted by stardf29 at
5:07 PM
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