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Post by Gerry on Jun 26, 2024 12:07:21 GMT -5
I think Betsey is one of those poets who is completely under the radar, which is a shame because her work is so good, so here's an example of one of her poems and her discussion about it. |
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Post by denise on Jul 2, 2024 7:17:10 GMT -5
I keep coming back to this poem and the author's discussion of it. It seems to me that, at the time of the interview (which was years after the poem was written, right?) she was still unable to speak completely openly about it. Of course, I could be completely wrong about this...but it does appear that this experience about what she writes is so deeply personal that she is struggling. This leads me to wonder if this is a common experience. That is, is it generally more difficult, does it take more time to write a poem about a personal struggle vs. an observation? Maybe there are no generalizations to be had here....Just wondering.
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Post by Gerry on Jul 8, 2024 11:14:06 GMT -5
Denise, I think that's right. And i think that part of the experience is enigmatic. I can talk you all through the choices I've made in any number of poems, but really why something started, why some bit of language or imagery captured my attention (or popped into my imagination), I couldn't tell you. As a matter of fact, many of the initial turns I might make are purely instinctual, and I only "think" about them when my inner-editor says "do you really want to go there?"
The bigger question is how did I train the unconscious to make such instinctual turns--decades of reading poetry, a lifetime of being engaged with the world, dumb luck? Some combination of all these things? Did I turn to writing over say painting because I felt I had a level of comfort or "talent" there that I never seemed to have with visual art?
I think the creative process can't be fully understood even by those participating in it, and that's okay.
Stu Dybek once described the early draft of any work as the block of marble. The making it a sculpture is the reast of the work. How we get the block of marble is the harder question to answer.
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