Obvious Isn’t Necessarily Great, Obviously
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Here’s something that drew me to try capturing the context for my own readers on my site (not that they number more than two or three). I have a lot of poetry, but little to commend it to readers unless I decrypt it.
I know it’s cryptic when my own writing pops up. And it’s nearly always a flow that stems from the heart, rather than the head. Feelings explained, maybe. But the words don’t fit, necessarily, the dictionary meaning, but more my own. I get that review on my stuff most often. To present a poem such as mine without a context to set it usually ends up in a comment like “neato” or “that’s interesting.” But to know the source of the words really drives it home.
I think the verse in the Bible is like that. It needs the context to be understood (enter Spirit) for its true meaning, otherwise we get interpretations like “wow, that’s pretty good stuff” or “notable-quotables” in anthologies.
I don’t enjoy (personal taste) obvious poetry. I would like to puzzle it out some. But the art in it has to have appeal. Forcing measure and rhyme is a math problem to me. I really don’t enjoy math. Counting beats and making perfect rhymes in a pattern just feel too much like programming. I have done that sort of work in my poetry, I admit, and I’m pleased with some of my attempts, but it’s not how my pen works best. I feel that positioning of words and phrases, or repetition, or specific words, rather than technicality defines my own taste in writing. Haiku might be the only really good “mathematical” sort of poetry that I personally enjoy.
Maybe it’s the difference between technical drawing and fine painting. Both get a picture. I enjoy both types of picture rendering, am better at technical drawing, but get far more satisfaction in acrylics on canvas. Not that I do either much anymore. I sure miss that. I’m working on getting some supplies and maybe I’ll be able to throw out some more visual poetry.
Wonderful Sorites on my poetry as would have been written, hypothetically by another person who, theoretically might hold this opinion, if so appropriate as you may be inclined to theorize. 1. No interesting poem are unpopular among people of real taste 2. No modern poetry is free from affectation 3. All your poems are on the subject of soap-bubbles 4. No affected poetry is popular among people of real taste 5. No ancient poetry is on the subject of soap-bubbles Courtesy of Alexander Bogomolny