Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Sunday, April 03, 2016
I've stated three "categorical" purposes of poetry, to unify, show difference, to harmonize. But these three have a subtle addition. Poet often "anchor" their poetry to pre-existing systems of belief or understanding. Fuqua's essay from poetryrepairs http://www.poetryrepairs.com/v16/c04.html exemplifies this fourth mode of "anchoring" poetry to a fourth mode which is actually a multitude of modes stretching to the latest imaginable system. FUQUA talks of the "moral" to the poem, this is but one way to understand how/why a poem carries its meaning.
C.S.Fugua
The Moral of It All
In a review of one of my short story collections, a critic wrote that “...many of these tales [are] meant to leave the writer with a moral lesson, or at least comment on morality in the modern age.” Although it was expressed as criticism, I took the comment as compliment because I believe a piece should imply more than the description on the page and impart some kind of moral or position. When my work achieves that, I feel lucky.
I’ve published short and book-length material, nonfiction and fiction, poetry and prose. By far, my short work, especially poetry, is the most satisfying to produce. Everything is story, and the most challenging form of story is the poem—the shorter, the better. What’s more, if the narrative on the page implies an extensive story beyond the words, then, in my opinion, it has succeeded on a greater level. And if it involves a moral? That’s gravy.
The poet whose work I admire most was a master at achieving story and moral beyond the printed page. Raymond Carver is celebrated most for his short stories, but he was a master poet as well. Take “The Net” as example. The narrator describes passing a one-armed fisherman who’s wrestling with a fishing net. The narrator assumes the fisherman is simply doing his job. But when the narrator looks back from a greater distance, he sees the fisherman is caught in the net, struggling to free himself. In its simplest interpretation, the poem’s net is a metaphor for life or circumstances. The distancing of the narrator from the fisherman is a metaphor for achieving objectivity by seeing the “big picture.” Of course, much more is going on in this poem, but even its most simplistic story and moral demonstrate the power and depth of short, concise, precise writing, of creating an expansive story within the confines of a poem.
My poem “Studebaker” accomplishes what I try but regularly fail to accomplish in each poem I write. “Studebaker” has appeared in several journals and is included in my first collection of poems, White Trash & Southern ~ Collected Poems, Volume I.
Studebaker
The story beyond the words involves a family plagued by domestic violence—a father/husband who prizes flashy cars over his relationship with his wife, who rules with anger and violence, whose behavior taints the very things that should be cause for celebration and enjoyment, a man who blames others for his own failures as a human being. Further, the poem’s second half implies that life itself is a cynical journey because everything that’s perfect in the poem— immaculate seats, custom steering wheel, whitewalls, new tires, moon, stars—is corrupted by the dark side of reality. As for lessons, draw your own conclusion, but, if I had to define a moral, it would be that people should value one another at least as much as they value their toys. Does the fact the poem communicates a moral make it less important, less enjoyable, less relevant?
As “Studebaker” suggests, I’m not a fan of poetry that relies on abstract, philosophical musing. I don’t condemn such writing. Certainly not. It’s just a matter of preference. The poems of mine selected to appear in POETRYREPAIRS.com are less specific than “Studebaker,” but are based on specific events generalized for broader application. I prefer to write and read poetry derived from and descriptive of everyday struggle, failure, success, and celebration, poetry that relates life through specific events and situations that may or may not be similar to the reader’s experiences. Through such work, we can relate to circumstances that might otherwise be foreign to us. We can sympathize and empathize closely with characters. And we can learn something new or validate something old, even if it’s the simple fact that not every reader enjoys work with a moral.
C.S.Fugua
The Moral of It All
In a review of one of my short story collections, a critic wrote that “...many of these tales [are] meant to leave the writer with a moral lesson, or at least comment on morality in the modern age.” Although it was expressed as criticism, I took the comment as compliment because I believe a piece should imply more than the description on the page and impart some kind of moral or position. When my work achieves that, I feel lucky.
I’ve published short and book-length material, nonfiction and fiction, poetry and prose. By far, my short work, especially poetry, is the most satisfying to produce. Everything is story, and the most challenging form of story is the poem—the shorter, the better. What’s more, if the narrative on the page implies an extensive story beyond the words, then, in my opinion, it has succeeded on a greater level. And if it involves a moral? That’s gravy.
The poet whose work I admire most was a master at achieving story and moral beyond the printed page. Raymond Carver is celebrated most for his short stories, but he was a master poet as well. Take “The Net” as example. The narrator describes passing a one-armed fisherman who’s wrestling with a fishing net. The narrator assumes the fisherman is simply doing his job. But when the narrator looks back from a greater distance, he sees the fisherman is caught in the net, struggling to free himself. In its simplest interpretation, the poem’s net is a metaphor for life or circumstances. The distancing of the narrator from the fisherman is a metaphor for achieving objectivity by seeing the “big picture.” Of course, much more is going on in this poem, but even its most simplistic story and moral demonstrate the power and depth of short, concise, precise writing, of creating an expansive story within the confines of a poem.
My poem “Studebaker” accomplishes what I try but regularly fail to accomplish in each poem I write. “Studebaker” has appeared in several journals and is included in my first collection of poems, White Trash & Southern ~ Collected Poems, Volume I.
Studebaker
There, next to the polished Mercedes, the yellow Studebaker,
rust holes in the fender walls, paint-chipped hood, worn seats—nothing like the old man's. He kept his sparkling, let me tell you, just like the Model T before, and the Thunderbird, the ’56 Chevy, and the entire freeway of cars that sped through my youth, but none was so striking as that hand-buffed Studebaker with its whitewalls, its custom steering wheel, its immaculate seats, and that night, coming back from Andalusia when they thought I was asleep in the back, and he reached over, grabbed her hair, jerked her hard enough to spin her head to the side. I found two spots of dried blood the following day, and I remembered how the moon had hung in the rear window just below a cluster of stars as he muttered, Christ, why'd you make me do that? And she had rested her head back against that perfect seat as the hum of new tires on asphalt rose through the floorboard.
The story beyond the words involves a family plagued by domestic violence—a father/husband who prizes flashy cars over his relationship with his wife, who rules with anger and violence, whose behavior taints the very things that should be cause for celebration and enjoyment, a man who blames others for his own failures as a human being. Further, the poem’s second half implies that life itself is a cynical journey because everything that’s perfect in the poem— immaculate seats, custom steering wheel, whitewalls, new tires, moon, stars—is corrupted by the dark side of reality. As for lessons, draw your own conclusion, but, if I had to define a moral, it would be that people should value one another at least as much as they value their toys. Does the fact the poem communicates a moral make it less important, less enjoyable, less relevant?
As “Studebaker” suggests, I’m not a fan of poetry that relies on abstract, philosophical musing. I don’t condemn such writing. Certainly not. It’s just a matter of preference. The poems of mine selected to appear in POETRYREPAIRS.com are less specific than “Studebaker,” but are based on specific events generalized for broader application. I prefer to write and read poetry derived from and descriptive of everyday struggle, failure, success, and celebration, poetry that relates life through specific events and situations that may or may not be similar to the reader’s experiences. Through such work, we can relate to circumstances that might otherwise be foreign to us. We can sympathize and empathize closely with characters. And we can learn something new or validate something old, even if it’s the simple fact that not every reader enjoys work with a moral.
Sunday, February 28, 2016
poetryrepairs #222 16.03
|
poetry repairs your heart
even as it splits it open. VIRGINIA WOOLF The Art of Reading]  REPAIR resort, frequent or habitual going; concourse or confluence of people at or in a place; making one's way; to go, betake oneself, to arrive; return to a place; to dwell; to recover, heal, or cure; to renew; to fix to original condition. directory of previous issues: for a year of issues directory go to issue 12 of that year YY http://www.poetryrepairs.com/vYY/c12.html |
welcome to POETRYREPAIRS - contemporary international
poetry for your reading pleasure, poetry from new and established poets poetryrepairs.com #222 16.03 LYN LIFSHIN. Regarding Men page 025 LYN LIFSHIN | The Man across the Hall |
LYN LIFSHIN | The Man Who Holds Me
LYN LIFSHIN | The Man across the Room in the Ballroom
COREY MESLER | Wall
page 027
LYN LIFSHIN | Salsa
VERNON WARING | bag of tricks
VERNON WARING | Julia Warhola Speaks
page 028
LYN LIFSHIN | The Man in front of Me Has Run Out of the Metro Station
HEIDI B MORRELL | Kingdom of Sea
HEIDI B MORRELL | A Little Fresh Air
page 029
LYN LIFSHIN | He was the Kind of Editor
GREGG DOTOLI | Seeds
GREGG DOTOLI | After Night Snow
page 030
LYN LIFSHIN | Branbury Beach
C. S. FUQUA | Fade
C. S. FUQUA | Nesting Empty
page 031
LYN LIFSHIN | In Those First Moments
031POET2 | 031POEM2
031POET3 | 031POEM3
page 032
LYN LIFSHIN | My Father, Those Days, How I Hated HowHe was Glued to the Radio
LYN LIFSHIN | I Don't Want to be My Father's Daughter
page 033
LYN LIFSHIN | Hardly Any are Left
MARC CARVER | Obscurity
MARC CARVER | A Good Licking
page 034
LYN LIFSHIN | Snake Dream
MARK A. MURPHY | Snow Dream
MARK A. MURPHY | Interstellar
page 035
LYN LIFSHIN | The Ones Gone, But Lovers I'm Sure I'll See Again
KENNETH KESNER | Circa 1905 Near the Irawadi
call for poetry
page 036
LYN LIFSHIN | The Cardiologist Has Left His Wife to Tango
LYN LIFSHIN | The Cardiologist
LYN LIFSHIN | The Cardiologist Dumps His Wife to Run Off to Tango
poetryrepairs.com #222 16.03
please link to poetryrepairs @ http://www.poetryrepairs.com/v16/c02.html
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Purpose
POETRYREPAIRS introduces and encourages development of new and established poets [and writers on poetry-related subjects] who seek an international idiom in poetry,
POETRYREPAIRS explores all facets of poetry: its philosophy, literary criticism, theory and praxis. We invite informational, plain-language essays on poetry-related subjects: for example, local-provincial-regional-national-international-multicultural poetry, commentary, interviews, opinion, reviews of books-performances-writing programs, and discussions on issues relevant to poets, their poems, and poetry readers.
[POETRYREPAIRS seeks writers in the global creative community. We will publish local-provincial-regional-national-international-multicultural poetry, We favor writing that is reasoned/rational and accessible to international readers.]
POETRYREPAIRS wants you to gather with friends, to recite poetry over food and beverage, to debate its messages, and to light candles in darkened places.
poetryrepairs.com invites your essay on poetry, or on a poet or poets, and, also, essays on all things related to poetry, its theory and its practice. Or, simply comment on a poem/poet on poetryrepairs.com
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FIND GIFT BUY GIFT @
http://www.zazzle.com/poetryrepairshop.
POETRYREPAIRS introduces and encourages development of new and established poets [and writers on poetry-related subjects] who seek an international idiom in poetry,
POETRYREPAIRS explores all facets of poetry: its philosophy, literary criticism, theory and praxis. We invite informational, plain-language essays on poetry-related subjects: for example, local-provincial-regional-national-international-multicultural poetry, commentary, interviews, opinion, reviews of books-performances-writing programs, and discussions on issues relevant to poets, their poems, and poetry readers.
[POETRYREPAIRS seeks writers in the global creative community. We will publish local-provincial-regional-national-international-multicultural poetry, We favor writing that is reasoned/rational and accessible to international readers.]
POETRYREPAIRS wants you to gather with friends, to recite poetry over food and beverage, to debate its messages, and to light candles in darkened places.
poetryrepairs.com invites your essay on poetry, or on a poet or poets, and, also, essays on all things related to poetry, its theory and its practice. Or, simply comment on a poem/poet on poetryrepairs.com
Privacy Statement
POETRYREPAIRS policy is to respect the purpose for which visitors give us information and to respect our poets' need for privacy. The sole exception is 'We share necessary information when nominating a poet/poem for awards.'
We never give, sell, nor rent information to third parties for email marketing or other purposes. We may have advertising , affiliates, and partners; but no personal information is released to them.
FIND GIFT BUY GIFT @
http://www.zazzle.com/poetryrepairshop.
Saturday, February 27, 2016
general
What do poets do; what does poetry do?
I adhere to the philosophy of T.S. Eliot's teacher at Harvard. F.H. Bradley wrote that "each individual lives in a totally encompassing private universe from the experience of which we manifest institutions and perceptions." These manifestations are not full-blown worlds that replace what others live in and experience; rather they are tendencies toward unity, tendency toward difference, and tendencies toward harmony. Poets' writings create alternatives to established institutions and perceptions which readers follow or not, sometimes consciously or unconsciously as is the case with the tendency a poet creates. It is for this reason alone that Plato banned poets from his Republic: "poetry endangers the established order of the soul."
Consider Milton who created Paradise Lost. His view of Satan was that of a charismatic leader of all those who turned away from God. This "negative deity" becomes for our dualistic society the epitome of all our dualisms: Satan and God, right or wrong, black and white, rich or poor, Democrat and Republican, although there are many who do not fit, do not match the dualisms, these dualisms have become institutions and perceptions--we speak of wealth, race, and politics among other things as being a choice between a negative and a positive though there are many degrees of these things.
Likewise a poet who creates mostly women personae is a feminist writer demonstrating a tendency to a tendency toward unity in the social group "women", or by exclusion of males toward difference for the social group "women". Of course, even in gender we may recognize degrees of maleness/femaleness. Some poets, and I would argue the best of them, seek harmony. (This is merely an opinion).
Basically, poets attack or support institutions and perceptions by a subliminal choice of tendencies which are adopted, adapted by readers or rejected. But poets also anchor their creations to established tendencies: there are Romantic, post structuralist, psychological, narrative, and formalist poets. All this is not with degrees of better and best but with readers' perceptions of what is or is not "likeable" in poetry.
What poets do and what poetry does is take from the experience of a totally self-contained universe and manifest to others certain tendencies toward socialinstitutions and social perceptions.
What do poets do; what does poetry do?
I adhere to the philosophy of T.S. Eliot's teacher at Harvard. F.H. Bradley wrote that "each individual lives in a totally encompassing private universe from the experience of which we manifest institutions and perceptions." These manifestations are not full-blown worlds that replace what others live in and experience; rather they are tendencies toward unity, tendency toward difference, and tendencies toward harmony. Poets' writings create alternatives to established institutions and perceptions which readers follow or not, sometimes consciously or unconsciously as is the case with the tendency a poet creates. It is for this reason alone that Plato banned poets from his Republic: "poetry endangers the established order of the soul."
Consider Milton who created Paradise Lost. His view of Satan was that of a charismatic leader of all those who turned away from God. This "negative deity" becomes for our dualistic society the epitome of all our dualisms: Satan and God, right or wrong, black and white, rich or poor, Democrat and Republican, although there are many who do not fit, do not match the dualisms, these dualisms have become institutions and perceptions--we speak of wealth, race, and politics among other things as being a choice between a negative and a positive though there are many degrees of these things.
Likewise a poet who creates mostly women personae is a feminist writer demonstrating a tendency to a tendency toward unity in the social group "women", or by exclusion of males toward difference for the social group "women". Of course, even in gender we may recognize degrees of maleness/femaleness. Some poets, and I would argue the best of them, seek harmony. (This is merely an opinion).
Basically, poets attack or support institutions and perceptions by a subliminal choice of tendencies which are adopted, adapted by readers or rejected. But poets also anchor their creations to established tendencies: there are Romantic, post structuralist, psychological, narrative, and formalist poets. All this is not with degrees of better and best but with readers' perceptions of what is or is not "likeable" in poetry.
What poets do and what poetry does is take from the experience of a totally self-contained universe and manifest to others certain tendencies toward socialinstitutions and social perceptions.