Discussion - Ready to Leap

Nope. Great questions. I suppose you starting to take your poetry seriously is similar to becoming professional in any vocation -- you learn the nuts and bolts; history and inner workings.

I've always believed in poetry as a means of expressing profound, instant emotion or relating an obtuse idea; it's also there to relate other ideas. It's a communication form; another kind of storytelling; a different vehicle in which to deliver your ideas. Of course, as I mentioned in a previous post, poetry's also helped me get laid more times than I can count, and I'm fairly sure from sonnet to stanza, that's what it was meant for to begin with.

All that said, when you get the feeling, act on it. Write. Venture out and find others like you. You stay away from the stigma when you surround yourself with like minds.

Finally, as for editing, it's important. In any medium. No one has ever connected their message with the receiver absolutely the way he intended, regardless of how flawless the messenger believes himself to be.

In the end, I just do whatever poetinahat does. That seems to work like gangbusters.

So, leap. Then leap farther and farther.

I am reading Ted Kooser's Poetry Home Repair Manual, I highly recommend it. It's not what it sounds like, he's the down to earth Poet Laureate and that is reflected in this wonderful advice book.

What I've been told is to read and read and read lots of poetry. But I agree, there is so much stigma placed on ''serious" poetry. It's really a bunch of hogwash. Honestly, I have been hanging around some "serious" poetry forums, or I was anyway, and I've never met a snobbier, more pretentious bunch.

So don't take it TOO seriously.

Kevin, just don't lose the edge that comes from your spontaneous stream of words. Editing can polish a piece by tightening up thoughts and images, cleaning up ragged metaphors, and creating rhythm and mood. But some of this is overdone, overthought. You are at your best when you just spill.

If they still exist, go back to some of william haskins' old posts. I used to pick his brain on his poems, and I always came away with the same feeling--his wordsmithing came from careful word selection and extremely tight writing (not a spare word or phrase). And, I don't think he did much in the way of editing.

My problem is some of the poetry I read here is way too purple for me. I know poetry is supposed to be somewhat purple in its decriptive tone, at least to an extent, but some people overdo it. I have the same reaction to overly-purple poetry as I do to purple prose. Painting an image with words is only part of a message carried in a poem, although there are exceptions. I prefer the lean, tight images that come from careful word selection and relevance to the poem's theme. william was a master of that. I don't want to be overpowered by the images. I like the ordinary to be made extraordinary with as few words as possible. That's artistry to me. Is my poetry there? The kind I like to read? Not even close. Probably never will be.

I also think poetry can be fun, lighthearted, and whimsical. Too much of it is dark and mysterious, although I like dark and mysterious in measure.

My favorite poems use obscure truisms as either central themes or as metaphor nucleators.

[ETA: This thread is now listed under Discussions in the Table of Contents.]

I was going to recuse myself from this discussion, but I can't.

You gents are very kind, by the way. Thank you.

Kevin, welcome home. You already do great work; maybe if you stop looking askance at it, you won't need to do anything else. (But Denise's suggestion is a good one too -- I'll have to take it myself.)

I feel like I've already talked about whatever it is that I do in other discussion threads here -- except that I just try stuff to see if it works. There's more to it, I'm sure, but it's lost wax in the moulding process. Next time around, I'll try to save a little.

The main point is that I like writing poetry. It's an end for me.

Great topic, Kevin.

Hey Kevin-you know we have been having a bit of fun on the Poetry Game thread-right? So I never-ever wrote a word of poetry in my life until I started to play with some of you folks. What do I know of poetry? Nothing! It is just the truth-I would not know a stanza from a hole in my Petunia patch. However-I love reading your poetry-it is inspiring-and fun to read-food for thought and all that great stuff

I do not know if I am a good poet-after all how can I be-I know nothing about poetry-not a damn thing as I said-myself I got into the game we play and that I enjoy tremendously and it sparks my brain-touches something I did not know I possess-you spark my brain-make me think-you do that Kevin-is not that what it is all about?

Markets? Again I know from nothing-I always hear how difficult it is to get poetry published-no money in it and all that-True? Maybe! I do not care-I do read a lot and write a lot and make a living from writing. I will tell you this dear heart-if you had a book of poetry published-or even if you wrapped it in fish paper and sent it via the brown boys-I'd sure as hell read it-even buy it!

So no answers to your questions I know-just wanted to praise your talent and tell you that from deep in my guts that I have entered a new world and you are a large and enjoyfullable part of it-and for that I thank you!

Kevin, for the love of the gods, get some confidence into that brilliant brain of yours!
Respect yourself and you will respect your poetry because it comes from your self. You don't have to follow rules to be a poet, you don't have to know what a stanza is, or a verse or a haiku, or a ballad or anything of the sort. You just have to write with your heart, with your mind, with your natural rhythm that's uniquely yours. We don't need more people conforming for conformity's sake Kevin, stand for who and what you are and stop putting yourself down.

Some people have naturally poetic souls, some do not. You do have the talent, you just lack the confidence in yourself to realize that artist is as artist does and not what others say or do. Stop angsting about people who don't have the same talent or just don't work in the same way. You're a poet, a creator of written art so Go. Create.
Submit, respect your talent, respect your readers right to actually LIKE what you do. Respect their right to dislike it as well. Just be a poet.

//End Rant.

It seems "taking poetry seriously" isn't the right phrasing. As I recall some things you said in the past, it was more a matter of "respecting poetry."

My advice is just to respect the power a poem can possess, and go from there.

WS

*hugs* No worries Kev, we love you after all. ;-)

KTC, you had me buffaloed.....I've always read your work, thinking that you were very serious

I admire your synaptic abilities - you're wired, dude!

kid

KTC, I felt that same kind of shift you're talking about a few months ago. I never took my poetry seriously, or respected it, if that's a better way to put it, until this shift happened. I have a friend who used to call me on the phone and say, for instance, "Hey, there's a girl here in my office, a friend, who's getting married. Can you write me something special for her?" And I would say, "sure, call me back in an hour." I could whip off a pretty decent poem.

But when that shift happened, I became to flirt with the idea of writing only poetry. My attention span is short, so I don't want to write any more novels, maybe not even more short fiction. I want to dedicate the rest of my writing life to poetry, and hopefully make even half a name for myself someday, get some books of poetry published.

It's very exciting, this new direction I've taken. Reading, learning about, and writing poetry are bringing me peace, joy and hope for my writing future. It's exhilirating.

So, yeah, whipping off a poem for fun, there's nothing wrong with that, but when you start thinking about publication, this is when the game REALLY gets interesting and exciting.

Good luck.

glad to hear it bro.