Understand poetry

Read articles How to Critique Poetry & Critiquing Poetry.

Making some headway on understanding poetry. I realize now a poet does not have unlimited freedom in poetic aims. She can’t afford to be completely self-absorbed.

I think a whole lot of my poetry may be disqualified as “good” because it’s so self-aimed, self-serving, and self-purposed. I used to think this was a virtue of writing poetry, but now I’m beginning to realize this is not the case. At least it’s not the case for someone who would like to see her poetry in print.

It’so awful – sittnig in the class, staring at that poem and “Gosh, what is this about?!” I wish I could understand at least a bit, but sometimes it seems that I’m incurably prosaic.

Still haven’t completed introductory book on poetry, but started another anyway. Bought Sparknotes “How to Write Poetry,” by Diane Mehta. Can use it anyway for the offsprigs poetry lessons.

I’m familiar with most of the topics, but came across a few interesting terms.

. apostrophe poetry – an address to an absent person or idea, such as Shakespeare’s “O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts!”

. eclogue poetry – a poem about a pastoral theme, such as farming, crops, the countryside…takes the form of a dialogue…also referred to as “bucolics.”

. syncopation – a pattern that is temporarily suspended.

. hyperbole – exaggeration

. synecdoche – using one part of a thing to stand for the thing, as in “The suits ate dinner at the pub.”

. metonymy – an attribute stand for an entire thing, as in “a message from the White House.”

. synesthesia – two different senses are evoked together

Haven’t had any time to continue introductory book on poetry, but have been penning poems upon inspiration—something I haven’t done for years. Guess I’m feeling that low, low current that can be let by poetry only.

Curious about the revision process for poetry and how it differs from revising prose. A question for which I intend to find the answer. eventually.

Also found three or four poets’ blogs, pretty randomly. Really enjoy reading their updates, reading about how hard they’ve worked revising this one, or how they read this other one at the cafe last weekend…. Wish I were that confident.

Endeavoring to “understand poetry,” but I’m not sure what would mark the finish line.

Realistically, the short-term goal would be to master skills outlined for the 1st-year college level poetry course. I have no idea what objectives those might be, so that will take a bit of research. But not difficult to do.

Long-term goal may be to master skills outline for the 2nd-year college level poetry course.

For the sake of a clear aim, I would mark the loftier goal accomplished by a final, defining achievement—publication of one poem in a university literary journal.

As for the short-term goal, I would consider this “Thing” “Done” when I pass a 1st-year college level “Poetry” examination—preferably proctored, but in the event this is impractical, a non-proctored exam would suffice.

I’ll always love it, but I will never claim to understand it.

“Downright French Revolution of the Senses”

“A Box of Clothes”

“Weather of Days”

In the third poem, he begins with

“And especially afternoon’s certain
.....vanishing, its immunity
..........to human departures,

I dont’ know enough about formatting codes to be able to quote Manzione just the way the poetry appears on the page in SR, except that I use ellipses instead of blank space which doesn’t take effect in these window boxes.

Until then, try to get a copy. It’s well worth it.

I love the use of the phrase, “a whiff of pulled weeds”

I want to research this poet, who received an MFA from the New School in 2004. He’s now living in St. Petersburg, teaching composition, and working as a freelance journalist. I expect interesting work to come from him.

See you there?

:)

I’ve been reading as much as I can, from different magazines, including The Southern Review, Poetry, Atlanta Review, Georgia Review, The Aurorean, and others. I’m eating, drinking, sleeping poetry. I read it aloud, I try to memorize it, I write and revise it, I analyse it.

Time for me to team with others on this.

I’m learning as fast and deep as I can dive. Risking collision. — 4 weeks ago
I’ll be lucky if I don’t knock my head on something underwater, or get caught in some root tangles deep in the silt of the river.

http://www.thedrunkenboat.com/webster.html

Jul 24, 09:28PM PDT | Edit | Delete | 0 comments

WOman! This poets IS too exciting. I have to tell you all. Stephanie Strickland. — 4 weeks ago
Here is the link to the fist poem I found of hers, “The Ballad of Sand and Henry Soot,” which wone the 2nd Annual Poetry Prize for the Boston Review:

http://www.altx.com/EBR/EBR5/strick.htm

But there was another one, one which I had on the screen before that crazy web browser got jammed up and over-loaded, maybe because damn Kodak was flooding the lines without permission, as they always do to me. Where was that poem? Let me see…

Oh HERE it is. The University of Iowa’s literary web page wrote this review: “poem V is the first work of poetry to exist simultaneously in print and on the Web as one work. V: WaveSon.nets/Losing L’una (Penguin 2002) was selected by Brenda Hillman for the Alice Fay Di Castagnola Prize of the Poetry Society of America.” This is, and I am not, I promise you, prone to over-praising a poem, amazing:

http://www.uiowa.edu/~iareview/tirweb/feature/strickland/vniverse/index.html

Jul 24, 06:49PM PDT | Edit | Delete | 0 comments

This early afternoon, I will research some of the following poets: — 4 weeks ago
Joan Larkin
Ed Roberson
Suzanne Buffram
Nick Carbo’
Stephanie Strickland
Karen Vokman

These poets have visited Columbia College of Chicago.

Already, I’ve found some interesting material on Suzanne Buffram, and am reading it now:

http://www.arcpoetry.ca/logentries/reviews/000198_suzanne_buffams_past_imperfect.php

I see that I have a long long way to go. Meanwhile, here’s a collection of Nick Carbo’s poetry. The link:

http://www.poemhunter.com/i/ebooks/pdf/nick_carbo_2004_9.pdf

Jul 24, 09:55AM PDT | Edit | Delete | 0 comments

And then again, Olena Kalytiak Davis IS contemporary. I suppose so too is Jim Behrle — 6 weeks ago
Is Phantom Stranger, who posted on her blog, really Jim Behrle?

http://www.webdelsol.com/Perihelion/behrle.htm

Then Ira Sadoff, in his essay on OKD in June/July APR, mentioned she had drawn on Ashberry, on some of his techniques. So I look up Ashberry (he may still be alive, born in 1927), and find there are three major themes to his poetry.

” (1) the problem of subjective identity—Whose consciousness informs the poem? (2) the relationship between language and subjectivity—Whose language do I speak or does the language have a mind of its own? (3) the connection between subjectivity, language, and place—What does it mean to be an American poet?”

There is no common theme to this entry. After supper, I look again at a list of entries resulting in a google search of John Ashbery. I find another page, out of a review by Kenny Tanemura for tmpoetry.com/ on a poet named Dean Young, who was inspired by John Ashbery. Tanemura doesn’t exactly trash Young, but he sort of slowly roasts him. The lesson here is not every one appreciates Dada poetry, and according to Tanemura, there is some pretty bad Dada poetry out there. Which is not to say Dean is a bad poet, but then again, there are plenty of flaws in his gems.

http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:J_0BkqvJ99sJ:www.tmpoetry.com/RevMenu/Reviews/KenT04.pdf+ashberry+%2Bdada&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=6

And a day later, after posting the above, I happen to be reading from a copy of Poetry, which I got, front cover reading PEOTRY, it’s a “humor issue” anyway, Dean Young is the first poet featured. So I read those, and think to myself, I got to find out who is this Dean Young. And later, after midnight, I’m entering his name in google, and I get

http://www.newhampshirereview.com/leong.htm

A review from a New Hampshire journal on D.Y. So we read it, and wonder, ponder. Hmmm… So this is a hot young new poet of the first decade of the twentyfirst century? Eh???

Jul 12, 01:13PM PDT | Edit | Delete | 0 comments

I’ve been reading Baudelaire lately and I enjoy it quite a bit. And a few friends have sent me poems and I’ve enjoyed the wording and the line choices. And yet, do I really understand it? No, not really. I hope I can understand that pish posh about rhythm and rhyme someday.