Back in February of 2012, I wrote the following “response paper” for a class on form and theory of poetry. I thought it might be worth sharing. Don’t worry if you are unfamiliar with whom I reference or the texts I reference; the point is sharing the thoughts. … Fanny Howe says in her essay […]
The futility of “finding” one’s “voice”
May 13, 2013 by
What I say here relates to the “What is an aesthetic?” series (especially the third one). A few weeks ago, hearing a young poet say he is trying to find his voice sounded archaic to me. Archaic isn’t the right word, but it does the job. What I mean is, it felt like outdated idealism. […]
Making poetry go beyond oneself
May 13, 2013 by
When we think of immaturity, we think of a type of self-contained system. We find a poem to be immature when it is too limited by the writer’s self or experience (and when the poem lacks a density, but this will be for another time). There are many ways that poets try to make their […]
What is an aesthetic? Part 3
May 13, 2013 by
In two previous posts (see Part 1 and Part 2), I have been considering what an aesthetic is and, consequentially, what is meant when someone asks someone else what his/her aesthetic is. When one poet asks another poet about his/her aesthetic, what the first poet is wondering is how the other poet is both similar […]
What is an aesthetic? Part 2
May 13, 2013 by
In a previous post, I considered the meaning of the word “aesthetic” and its implications. When one poet asks another poet what his/her aesthetic is, the implication is that there are many types of aesthetics (why ask if there aren’t?) and that, therefore, there are a number of ways of recognizing/creating beauty. The other implication […]
What is an aesthetic? Part 1
May 13, 2013 by
When one poet asks another poet what his/her aesthetic is, this meaning of aesthetic seems to be the one used (taken from the OED): The philosophy of the beautiful or of art; a system of principles for the appreciation of the beautiful, etc.; the distinctive underlying principles of a work of art or a genre, […]
Some basic thoughts on the workshop
May 13, 2013 by
I know I’m not the first poet with opinions about the concept of a workshop. Many have written for or against the concept, while of course having a certain idea of what a workshop is and what it entails. I think it is true that a workshop won’t necessarily make someone become a better writer; […]
On mathematics as language
May 13, 2013 by
The following is something I wrote back in summer of 2010, directed toward a friend who had studied mathematics and said, “Math is the truth.” … If one says, “Math is the truth,” it begs me to ask: what is “truth” in this context? I’m tempted to think of “Truth” as something that is always […]
Some autobiography, Part 2; or, the science continued; or, the decision to know poetry
May 13, 2013 by
As described in a previous post, I was a chemistry nerd in high school. Despite this seemingly disparate interest, I was enthusiastic about writing poetry. To give you an idea of this, one summer in high school, while in an internship in which I helped out in a lab/performed some experiments, I wrote poems while […]
Some autobiography; or, in defense of the ignorant
May 13, 2013 by
We begin life with ignorance; sure, some instinct, but also ignorance. And, certainly, some ignorance will always remain. When I began writing poetry as a sophomore in high school, I, honestly, had no models beyond the generic, public notion of what “poetry” was: a rhymey thing with metaphor…. I hadn’t even read any modernist poetry. […]