Thank you for sharing these profound reflections. There is so much to unpack from this. I appreciate how you break down the beauty of poetry and its ability to transcend time and memory.
There's so much to unpack here. I love the definition of poetry as a heightened form of language, and the ultimate goal for any poet should be to create something that can be objectively called art. However, as someone who teaches poetry to middle schoolers and then gets to read what they compose, I consider their work as poetry, although, alas, no student of mine has crossed the magic threshold and produced art. My own truly amateur poetic efforts are a fair distance from art, but I'd like to think that they fall under some definition of poetry. But boy, would I like to learn more about how to make them unique, beautiful, and incantatory.
I suppose your students are writing poetry much like my own kids bring home a pinch pot from art class and I still call it art. FYI - not sure what form you are encourage in your students but free verse is precarious for beginner poetry. In order to learn basic “magic” I would teach iambic meter... ballads or pentameter. I would not mess around with anything other than iambics with beginners. I would also throw A HECKUVALOT of exceptional poetry at kids. Not arcane stuff but really truly AE Stallings, Elizabeth Bishop, and Robert Burns first to hear the music. The poem Richard Corry is great. Something with a story or with emotions that kids can relate to. My goodness I would even throw in Shel Silverstein and Prelutsky. Some kid poets really had meter down. I would imitate those guys too.
This definitely hit home. I wrote a lot of poetry as a teenager, but it’s much rarer now for me to try. I know my meter isn’t quite right, but I don’t know how to fix it. But I also don’t try to publish it.
Not everyone needs to publish. I really don’t publish much since I am working on craft first. You don’t really make a living off of writing poetry. But in terms of just wanting to create your own poetry it’s a lot like making a beautiful dessert or meal. It is nourishing and can feed a soul. And in that case there is something to knowing how to create something for yourself. I also liken it to knowing how to play the piano. Learn to play just one song very well and it will be at your fingers whenever you have a waiting piano. You won’t be Chopin, but you will have a little bit of beauty. My goal in life is to write one good poem that my family, generations later, can remember. A hard fought lesson that will help them persist through a life of suffering. That is all I want. And really... so many poets out there are only known for just one poem. Why not try? If you are trying to get meter right, I would try something short and iambic. Just super short poems. I can give you examples sometime. You need not worry about content. Learning to write solid iambic meter is like learning good running form or a golf swing. Not glamorous but crucial.
Some poems take years. YEARS. Seriously. If you would like, you can send me an email via zinagomezliss@substack.com or through FB Messenger or however you want. :-)
I appreciate this reflection about a short comment I once heard you say. That comment left me wondering about the balance between emotion and good poetry. They feed on each other of course but nobody wants to starve or be glutinous. It has to be the perfect balance. Thank you for so eloquently reflecting on this!
I think it may be helpful to think of poetry as language. And language is a form of technology. Our emotions are simply feedback that our brains give back to us so we can respond to our environments appropriately. Language is how we convey our emotions to ourselves and others. Poetry is a heightened form of language that uses rhythm, meter, imagery in a unique, beautiful, or incantatory way. It is often written so that it is memorable. Poetry is art and art is how we pass down culture (values, history, lessons, etc.) from one generation to another. Think of the many books in the Old Testament that were written as poetry. That is one of the crucial ways that Judaism and Christianity has survived... through poetry. Poetry can hold emotion but poetry is much more than emotion.
Your reflection reminds me of a poem I had published in my university's anthology, which I keep in a closet because it's too painful and personal to explain. It's about the only picture of my grandfather that I own, of him as a schoolboy. I never knew him, nor did my father, because he left my grandmother a single mom with two tiny children. I'm glad I wrote it, and I wrote it well, but I don't want anyone affected by him to read it.
Thank you so much for this reply. And I am so sorry that there is so much pain associated with the poem that you wrote. It is hard when that happens, and there is often so much family unpacking that occurs in the creative process. Not all poetry is meant to be for the wide world. Poetry is a heightened form of language, and language is simply a technology with which we convey abstract thoughts and such. Conveying these emotions and experiences to one's self can be its own blessing.
This piece hit me hard in my heart, which, I have been told, is itself hard. I am consciously trying to reclaim the wonder of life, the good enchantment which I once enjoyed. Your article helps. Thank you! John.
Thank you so much for reading. It is great to hear from you. So much of art is capable of opening up the heart. Beauty has the power to call our souls a little outside our corporeal existence and want to unite to something greater and more than us.
Thank you for sharing these profound reflections. There is so much to unpack from this. I appreciate how you break down the beauty of poetry and its ability to transcend time and memory.
Thank you so much for reading! Poetry, as originally conceived, was made for memory and oral tradition.
There's so much to unpack here. I love the definition of poetry as a heightened form of language, and the ultimate goal for any poet should be to create something that can be objectively called art. However, as someone who teaches poetry to middle schoolers and then gets to read what they compose, I consider their work as poetry, although, alas, no student of mine has crossed the magic threshold and produced art. My own truly amateur poetic efforts are a fair distance from art, but I'd like to think that they fall under some definition of poetry. But boy, would I like to learn more about how to make them unique, beautiful, and incantatory.
I suppose your students are writing poetry much like my own kids bring home a pinch pot from art class and I still call it art. FYI - not sure what form you are encourage in your students but free verse is precarious for beginner poetry. In order to learn basic “magic” I would teach iambic meter... ballads or pentameter. I would not mess around with anything other than iambics with beginners. I would also throw A HECKUVALOT of exceptional poetry at kids. Not arcane stuff but really truly AE Stallings, Elizabeth Bishop, and Robert Burns first to hear the music. The poem Richard Corry is great. Something with a story or with emotions that kids can relate to. My goodness I would even throw in Shel Silverstein and Prelutsky. Some kid poets really had meter down. I would imitate those guys too.
This definitely hit home. I wrote a lot of poetry as a teenager, but it’s much rarer now for me to try. I know my meter isn’t quite right, but I don’t know how to fix it. But I also don’t try to publish it.
Not everyone needs to publish. I really don’t publish much since I am working on craft first. You don’t really make a living off of writing poetry. But in terms of just wanting to create your own poetry it’s a lot like making a beautiful dessert or meal. It is nourishing and can feed a soul. And in that case there is something to knowing how to create something for yourself. I also liken it to knowing how to play the piano. Learn to play just one song very well and it will be at your fingers whenever you have a waiting piano. You won’t be Chopin, but you will have a little bit of beauty. My goal in life is to write one good poem that my family, generations later, can remember. A hard fought lesson that will help them persist through a life of suffering. That is all I want. And really... so many poets out there are only known for just one poem. Why not try? If you are trying to get meter right, I would try something short and iambic. Just super short poems. I can give you examples sometime. You need not worry about content. Learning to write solid iambic meter is like learning good running form or a golf swing. Not glamorous but crucial.
I’d be happy to send you one I wrote a few years ago. It did go through revisions that improved it, but I had to stop tinkering with it at some point.
Some poems take years. YEARS. Seriously. If you would like, you can send me an email via zinagomezliss@substack.com or through FB Messenger or however you want. :-)
I appreciate this reflection about a short comment I once heard you say. That comment left me wondering about the balance between emotion and good poetry. They feed on each other of course but nobody wants to starve or be glutinous. It has to be the perfect balance. Thank you for so eloquently reflecting on this!
I think it may be helpful to think of poetry as language. And language is a form of technology. Our emotions are simply feedback that our brains give back to us so we can respond to our environments appropriately. Language is how we convey our emotions to ourselves and others. Poetry is a heightened form of language that uses rhythm, meter, imagery in a unique, beautiful, or incantatory way. It is often written so that it is memorable. Poetry is art and art is how we pass down culture (values, history, lessons, etc.) from one generation to another. Think of the many books in the Old Testament that were written as poetry. That is one of the crucial ways that Judaism and Christianity has survived... through poetry. Poetry can hold emotion but poetry is much more than emotion.
Your reflection reminds me of a poem I had published in my university's anthology, which I keep in a closet because it's too painful and personal to explain. It's about the only picture of my grandfather that I own, of him as a schoolboy. I never knew him, nor did my father, because he left my grandmother a single mom with two tiny children. I'm glad I wrote it, and I wrote it well, but I don't want anyone affected by him to read it.
Thank you so much for this reply. And I am so sorry that there is so much pain associated with the poem that you wrote. It is hard when that happens, and there is often so much family unpacking that occurs in the creative process. Not all poetry is meant to be for the wide world. Poetry is a heightened form of language, and language is simply a technology with which we convey abstract thoughts and such. Conveying these emotions and experiences to one's self can be its own blessing.
This piece hit me hard in my heart, which, I have been told, is itself hard. I am consciously trying to reclaim the wonder of life, the good enchantment which I once enjoyed. Your article helps. Thank you! John.
Thank you so much for reading. It is great to hear from you. So much of art is capable of opening up the heart. Beauty has the power to call our souls a little outside our corporeal existence and want to unite to something greater and more than us.