Thank you for writing and uploading this! As a young poet, this struck a cord in me. Your words are filled with so much passion.
This part (and the part about comic poems) stood out to me the most:
“A serious poem is a bigger undertaking than a comic poem or a poem that looks around at the world and describes it. Trying to say something important requires words that are unambiguous, strong words strung together with a lot of feeling and emotion. In a serious poem I am trying my utmost to have my reader understand exactly what I’m trying to say. I want to shape the poem as if I were building a lock. I want my reader to want to make the key and at the end, if we have both done our jobs, we will connect in a special way as surely as the tumblers fall into place.”
Well done, spelling out the choices and considerations that usually affect a poet on an instinctive level. And the connection of contact -> impact -> connection speaks deeply to me. I spent years writing poems that few people read, and there was value in the writing and limited sharing, but having response from a modest but regular readership (on Substack) is transforming the way I see my poems and myself as a poet.
I was a handy boy who liked to fix anything near me. We weren't encouraged in anything sensitive. I became a carpenter. For some reason words started to harass me in my twenties and so I wrote them down so I could go back to sleep. Never had any interest in being a poet.
Thank you for writing and uploading this! As a young poet, this struck a cord in me. Your words are filled with so much passion.
This part (and the part about comic poems) stood out to me the most:
“A serious poem is a bigger undertaking than a comic poem or a poem that looks around at the world and describes it. Trying to say something important requires words that are unambiguous, strong words strung together with a lot of feeling and emotion. In a serious poem I am trying my utmost to have my reader understand exactly what I’m trying to say. I want to shape the poem as if I were building a lock. I want my reader to want to make the key and at the end, if we have both done our jobs, we will connect in a special way as surely as the tumblers fall into place.”
thanks Somiah
Well done, spelling out the choices and considerations that usually affect a poet on an instinctive level. And the connection of contact -> impact -> connection speaks deeply to me. I spent years writing poems that few people read, and there was value in the writing and limited sharing, but having response from a modest but regular readership (on Substack) is transforming the way I see my poems and myself as a poet.
Thank you and we both feel the same about this.
You and me also.
Beautiful. I notice often that the physical begets the metaphysical. Did your sensitivity for words or materials come first? I
I was a handy boy who liked to fix anything near me. We weren't encouraged in anything sensitive. I became a carpenter. For some reason words started to harass me in my twenties and so I wrote them down so I could go back to sleep. Never had any interest in being a poet.
The muse clearly knew you had a skilled set of hands through which words could flow
Well, thank you for saying so.