A Writer's Notebook, Day Nine-Hundred-And-One

 I am stretching to be more revealing in my poetry, to be more straightforward.  It is a struggle, at times, since I am often inclined towards a certain cleverness, and have a habit of aloofness in my work.  I am not certain where this came from, to be honest, or why it is so present in my work, and I do not think it is a bad thing, but, I do believe I need to learn to do things that create more space for connection.  I need to give the reader a chance to get inside the poem, at times.  I want to let the work be more vulnerable sense, to provide a space in it for intimacy and connection, and I know that some of my natural tendencies need to be considered in that context.  I think it is possible to do what I am seeking within the framework of my voice, but it is necessary to discover a path, and that may require first becoming more comfortable within this new register before I can integrate it more fully with other, more developed, aspects of my craft.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What is this whole blog thing for anyway?

I am starting this because I said I would.  My friend Tim persuaded me, and that was probably a far more difficult and complicated maneuver on his part, that I should start this blog, and I made a commitment that I would, so here I am.  Which gives a reason for why this blog exists, but not really much of a purpose for that to lend meaning to that existence, which makes it like a lot of us, I suppose.  Of course, there are two purposes to this exercise, though there might only be one at a time, as they are largely about perspective, I think.  For instance, right now, a large part of the purpose, for me, is to have the commitment of adding to this blog consistently, as a matter of building the habit of working more steadily.  I have built that habit before, but it has always been intermittent, largely driven by situational demands.  In college, many years ago, I wrote daily, because I had an audience and because I was in classes that I felt committed to wr...
Read more

VanderMeer's Wonderbook, Chapter Four: Narrative Design (Continued)

Plot is often seen within certain fairly standard structures.  The Freytag pyramid, mentioned yesterday, like the three act structure, and many other standard plot diagrams, builds tension towards the climax, then resolves that tension as the story ends.  Vandermeer shows this through a series of diagrams, and then follows with some additional plot diagrams that provide further options.  The first of these comes from a film school illustration, and consists of a series of overlapping circles.  The progress of the story is similar to that in the traditional plot diagrams, but the focus is upon the way that the circles overlap, a symbol of the transitions that move the story from one phase to the next.  The diagram implies that at each step, the new elements begin to mingle with the old, washing them out, before the next phase begins introducing the elements necessary for that transition. After this we get a diagram describing the picaresque novel, a story whe...
Read more

Poem: I have done none of that

I have done none of that Really, I did forget, though I remembered since then, and still, I am not doing it, am waiting. I have no answers  about why or what is wrong. Something is wrong, but what? I do not have a good answer. I have no answer. I do not want to give any kind of answer. I should just do it instead of wondering why I am not, but that is not enough, not this time.
Read more