My poems, these days, are changing. Suddenly, without knowing, what has happened, I find myself writing short simple lyrics and miniatures. And I am breaking the rules.. I write about "beauty" for instance, about "loveliness" about souls and spirit. What is it?...this sudden, or perhaps not so sudden pull away from narrative, away from what I call my "flip contemporary voice" to a quieter one? And will this be "death" to any chance of publication?
I think perhaps the change comes for several reasons:
1. I am getting old and feel the need to pull in, simplify, quiet down.
2. The world has become too noisy with traffic, guns, newscasters, and the overwhelming glut of humanity treading through its streets. And one needs to retreat a bit simply to retain sanity
3. I wonder if it's "in the air" this backlash against post-modernism? Is irony falling out of favor? Are we tired from the absence of beauty and spirit in our poems? Because I have friends who've reported the same or similar changes in their new work.
Or maybe I am simply out on one of the many limbs of poetry....not a new one at all; only new to me?
8 months ago
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4 comments:
Pat, how wonderful to find your new blog. I think it is in the air, the backlash thing. After all, we've been Modern and Post- for over a century now. Hardly the New-New Thing anymore. And poets are the pioneers of the soul, the first to feel the tremors of a new time. Probably it's not aging at all, rather your ability to remain open.
Rachel
I think my poetry is changing too, but I am not sure how or why. I don't feel out on a limb really, but more that I have settled in to write what I WANT to write, not what others say I ought to be writing. I feel calmer since moving home to Maine. I feel more settled in and resolute. I am more awake at age 62 than I have ever been and I think it shows in my work.
As for post or modern or whatever, I reject all labels at this point! I am writing what is bubbling up on any given day in any form (or lack) that seems to be crying out for its place on the stage of my poem.
Is it not a great thing to be of an age and in a time when the individual can simply stop struggling and write? Maybe that IS the limb I am out on after all?
Great to be a blogger too! Who could have imagined we could have direct conversations with one another with a click of the "mouse" which used to be only a rodent!
(OK, so I am still a bit over the top with appropriateness... I pulled this comment and re-did it because of a SPELLING error! Oh dear.)
Well-stated, Pat. i can concur, although you say it better. Thank you for this blog. I will also be a frequent visitor. You have inspired me to return to writing in my own two blogs.
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