Vasiliki ends her great comments about the poem I posted with some questions: "Sometimes, I wonder whether I expect too much from any single poem... How does everyone weigh this? A single poem and the amount of context it needs? Esp. when sending out poems for publication... I have many very short poems that perhaps make more sense in a bigger grouping." I have that question, often, about my own work. And lately I've been thinking about this esp. while reading Dargie's poems, which I know are from a manuscript and which speak to each other around the experience of living in Kansas. Dargie's poems are maybe not the best way to address the question, though, because I think they're successful in both standing on their own and speaking back and forth to each other. I guess that is the ideal? (Or at least my ideal) That each poem provides enough to stand by itself and that it can be in conversation with other poems that might surround it in a book. But then there's the question of what "enough" is - different for everyone.
I tend to write poem-by-poem even when I'm trying to work on an m.s., so I think for me the individual poem comes first - but I suspect that for others it might the opposite, or that those things might weigh equally.
Kasey, first off: this is a very interesting question! I’ve run into this problem a lot trying to publish individual poems that tend to make a lot more sense as a collection. Because I’m working on a collection now, I’m starting to think about poems that might “fill in” particular gaps in the MS. Yet, like you, I tend mostly to write individual poems. I’m not sure I know how to do this, but maybe the ideal is to write a poem that stands alone and that is compelling without a larger context but that is brought into clearer relief once considered in a MS as a whole? I think my ideal is what you also describe as your own. It’s funny, too, because I think that this question is a slightly different version than the one I posed of my own poem this month. How much formal variation does a collection need? I never answered your questions as to whether I feel like I HAVE to write more formally diverse poems. I don’t think/feel as though I do, but it’s a fun exercise to see what comes together. But then I think of poets like Carol Maso who write lyric novels, which seems to be a different ballpark all together. Sorry if this is digressive in nature!
ReplyDeletep.s. Kasey, sorry that I was a day late in commenting on your poem. My remarks are there now!
I love Carole Maso so much :).
ReplyDeleteAnd it is an interesting related question - two versions of the same one. Are we all asking, in our different ways, what does a manuscript need? What does an individual poem need? Where do those needs intersect (and where not)? Shannon, I love it that it's feeling like fun to see what comes of formal exercises. It will be fun to read them - the ones you want to share...
This is maybe digressive, too, but: fun and pleasure and joy seem so important to what we do. If I don't feel enough pleasure in revising/revisiting a poem, I tend to let it die...
Yes, I agree Kasey, though I've come to this realization rather late, but pleasure and joy *are* so important to continuing to work on a piece... I am perhaps influenced by the writings of those French literary feminist/deconstructionists from my college days, but it strikes me also, that a poem feels exhilarating and alive, when there is still some sense of 'excess' -of surprise, of provocation. (... But not necessarily to me when the whole piece is a provocation.)
DeleteAlso, Shannon (and everyone), no worries about being "late" in commenting - anytime you can do it is fine - and if there's ever a month any of us can't, no problem. Thank you for your super thoughtful feedback!
ReplyDeleteThanks for this conversation! I've been away from the group for awhile, so just diving back in. (Side note: I've gone back and commented on the February poems and am working my way back to current, so take a look.) This thread topic is something I've been thinking about a lot as I try to send out poems for publication that make a lot more sense in context, exactly as y'all are saying. I think I like writing sequences because they seem to take the pressure off any one single poem. If I don't quite cover what I am trying to say in the poem, I can hit on it again somewhere down the road. They help me get going. That is the great advantage to me of the way I've been doing it, but the downside is the fact that no single poem really tells the story. Glad to know others struggle with this part/whole question. Also, love and totally agree with the pleasure and joy point. It's been fun to be coming back to writing to some extent in the past year or so, because I have a little more perspective and ability to just enjoy the process more, and have fun messing around with the ideas that fascinate me. Glad to be doing that now in community with this group :)
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