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Post by Gerry on Jul 8, 2024 11:18:32 GMT -5
Personally, I think this one is important. It's from Cathy Park Hong:
"Poems aren't about what you say but about what you withhold."
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Post by denise on Jul 9, 2024 9:03:36 GMT -5
Gerry -- I also think that what is withheld/unsaid can be key in a poem. For me, the trick (and where I frequently fail) is to not withhold too much or be too obtuse. Of course, this is where having others view your drafts can be helpful. It just occurred to me that, unless I am in workshop (which isn't that often), I generally don't have others read my poems. Maybe that's why I have so many unfinished ones!
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cathyw
Junior Member
Hello. I am glad I signed up for this so I squeeze in time to read and write and contemplate.
Posts: 64
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Post by cathyw on Jul 13, 2024 7:01:07 GMT -5
Gerry, Denise,
While being obtuse is a risk, it is only a risk if you are withholding out of fear and/or you are actually trying to hide something. I do this all too often and if I interrogate what is behind it, the next step is to ask how vulnerable I want to be. Some poems get left unfinished, others put on a brave face and get vulnerable and leave space in the withholding for the reader to identify in their own way. The poems are better for it in my opinion.
Thank you for the Cathy Park Hong quote. Important.
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Post by Gerry on Jul 16, 2024 8:41:22 GMT -5
So much can be implied but not stated. By creating clues we provide the reader a way into the mystery we ourselves are experiencing when we write.
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Post by bluebird on Jul 24, 2024 11:09:50 GMT -5
Gerry, the Hong quote is amazing...my interpretation is that if we say too much,
we don't leave room for the listener/reader to have their own personal response....
we force our own exact image, meaning etc. upon them and so they do not get to
be "co-creators" which, in some ways, I think, is what people who appreciate any
art form want to experience...i.e. resonance.
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