...I'm moving it all.
Yes, again. I know, I can never make up my mind, can I?
Anyway, I want to keep this blog all about my opinions instead of clogging it up with my poetry, so I created another place to keep my poetry out of the way. I = resourceful, no? I'm moving the older poetry over there, so that three-poem post? Will probably be gone in a few minutes after I post them over there.
If you were really stoked about my poetry (why, I will never comprehend, but I can take a compliment), you can find it here:
The Perfect Someone
And that's that! Enjoy, darlings.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Poetry and Dissociating the Work from the Author
(Sorry about the srs bsns title. This post is all srs bsns, though, so it works.)
I was telling Shakira about a poem I'm currently writing or at least have formulating in my brain, but that I'm afraid to publish because it's about sex. Now Dominique, you might ask (but I don't think you would, so I'm asking myself for you), puzzled, you write about sex frequently in your poems (which is very true). Why would you be worried about posting another one?
Well, this one is a lot more explicit. I've written metaphors with sexual undertones, alluded to sex, and in one memorable poem (well, at least to me) actually wrote about what sex felt like with a stranger. But this poem that's hovering in my pencil, more than a little reluctant to be written, is blunt and honest and doesn't muck around with language. As in: really very explicit about sex and the mechanics and all that.
Writing all that isn't really the problem. It's what becomes of posting it and letting the public see it that I'm nervous about.
The problem is that people associate you with your poems. I can't write a poem from a first-person point of view and avoid the personal talk that inevitably ensues. "So... who's it with?" or "Ohh, so this is what y'all's sex life is like," are the comments I dislike, because it brings up such a long, disclaimer-y conversation. I live in constant fear of these comments because I hate trying to explain everything I feel about poetry in one sitting.
For the record: yes, my poetry is based on me, to some extent. But other than that? It's more an amalgamation of experiences - experiences that I've had, experiences I want to have, how I imagine something happening. It's personal, but it's more a glimpse into an emotion than anything else (or at least that's what I'm aiming for, at any rate). I can write about emotions that I haven't felt for years. I can write about dream encounters. That does not reflect what I'm doing/feeling/experiencing right now.
Shakira was actually the one who brought it up like she was reading my mind. "Yeah, but then people will be like, 'Oh, that's how it is, huh?' when they read it," she said. And it's true: when your peers write something and show it to you, you automatically assume that you are being shown their life under the microscope, exactly and precisely preserved the way it actually is. I do the same thing, although I'm fighting it now that I'm on the receiving end of it.
Really, I can't speak for others, but for me? I'd like you to critique the work. Does it flow well? Are the breaks used well? How about the language? Was it awkward? Or the content? Handled well or badly? Is there anything too oblique that I should clarify? Should I stop trying to clarify? These are the things I want y'all to focus on, not who the poem is about.
So my question to you is: is it possible to dissociate the author as an individual person from their work? Do you do it? Is it better or worse to do so? And do we always do it - with famous and undiscovered writers alike - or is it just with our peers that we have this problem? Share, please, because this is something v. important to me as a writer.
I was telling Shakira about a poem I'm currently writing or at least have formulating in my brain, but that I'm afraid to publish because it's about sex. Now Dominique, you might ask (but I don't think you would, so I'm asking myself for you), puzzled, you write about sex frequently in your poems (which is very true). Why would you be worried about posting another one?
Well, this one is a lot more explicit. I've written metaphors with sexual undertones, alluded to sex, and in one memorable poem (well, at least to me) actually wrote about what sex felt like with a stranger. But this poem that's hovering in my pencil, more than a little reluctant to be written, is blunt and honest and doesn't muck around with language. As in: really very explicit about sex and the mechanics and all that.
Writing all that isn't really the problem. It's what becomes of posting it and letting the public see it that I'm nervous about.
The problem is that people associate you with your poems. I can't write a poem from a first-person point of view and avoid the personal talk that inevitably ensues. "So... who's it with?" or "Ohh, so this is what y'all's sex life is like," are the comments I dislike, because it brings up such a long, disclaimer-y conversation. I live in constant fear of these comments because I hate trying to explain everything I feel about poetry in one sitting.
For the record: yes, my poetry is based on me, to some extent. But other than that? It's more an amalgamation of experiences - experiences that I've had, experiences I want to have, how I imagine something happening. It's personal, but it's more a glimpse into an emotion than anything else (or at least that's what I'm aiming for, at any rate). I can write about emotions that I haven't felt for years. I can write about dream encounters. That does not reflect what I'm doing/feeling/experiencing
Shakira was actually the one who brought it up like she was reading my mind. "Yeah, but then people will be like, 'Oh, that's how it is, huh?' when they read it," she said. And it's true: when your peers write something and show it to you, you automatically assume that you are being shown their life under the microscope, exactly and precisely preserved the way it actually is. I do the same thing, although I'm fighting it now that I'm on the receiving end of it.
Really, I can't speak for others, but for me? I'd like you to critique the work. Does it flow well? Are the breaks used well? How about the language? Was it awkward? Or the content? Handled well or badly? Is there anything too oblique that I should clarify? Should I stop trying to clarify? These are the things I want y'all to focus on, not who the poem is about.
So my question to you is: is it possible to dissociate the author as an individual person from their work? Do you do it? Is it better or worse to do so? And do we always do it - with famous and undiscovered writers alike - or is it just with our peers that we have this problem? Share, please, because this is something v. important to me as a writer.
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