"The poem is sad because it wants to be yours, and cannot be." - John Ashbery
Have you ever stopped for a moment to ask yourself what the poem wants? Ok, chuckle if you want, but people are always trying to force something out of a poem that they believe is secretly hidden by the poet. Something he or she hopes you'll look for, but never find. I know this because more than one person has suggested the same.
When I write a poem, I may well have something in mind, but I may not. For the most part what I have in mind is of lesser significance that what the reader finds in the poem. By that I don't mean what I've hidden and they have decoded, but rather what that poem speaks to them in their own voice.
When someone tries to discern what I am saying in poetry, they may well become befuddled. My advise to readers of poetry is to let the poem become yours. Once that has happened, you'll know what it is telling you.
When I write a poem, I may well have something in mind, but I may not. For the most part what I have in mind is of lesser significance that what the reader finds in the poem. By that I don't mean what I've hidden and they have decoded, but rather what that poem speaks to them in their own voice.
When someone tries to discern what I am saying in poetry, they may well become befuddled. My advise to readers of poetry is to let the poem become yours. Once that has happened, you'll know what it is telling you.
2 comments:
I have long been fascinated by the relationship between reader and writer. I even wrote a poem once entitled 'Reader Please Supply Meaning' and I've returned to the theme many times. It's not that I don't come to a poem without any expectations because I would be lying if I said that and I suppose that's why some poetry disagrees with me. But that's fine. I do the same with music and art.
I actually have a blog coming up about a poem I wrote back in 2000 and I can't remember what it was supposed to be about which, for once, levels the playing field – I'm a reader like everyone else – and I have to ask the question: Is this still a good poem? Was it ever that good a poem? Because I read this poem, which I remember being so pleased about at the time, and I don't get it, my own poem. It's an interesting and unusual position to be in.
Jim,
Enjoyed reading your insights. The matter of your 2000 poem in question underscores that poetry like any other artform is not "static".
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