It may be ironic that I do not like to read poems. To a certain extent, I do not even like to read my own poems, but for different reasons. Poems, like any form of literature, has a wide variety of styles. Because I do not like to read poems, it is almost like saying I do not like sculpture, a major category of art.
I think the major reason for not liking poems is style. I have written a lot of poetry, and I still get inspiration every now and again for new poems. I like to think I have a distinctive style, and I have yet to come across another poet who writes anything like mine.
It would be up to the individual reader to determine if that makes my poems any good. In my humble experience, the reader tends to enjoy my work with a great amount of enthusiasm. I take their compliments and praise with thanks and gratitude, but I have never asked what makes my poems so great in their eyes.
I am tempted to never ask this for the simple reason of science. The very act of observing in science changes what is there. My incursion into your world is no longer your world. Perhaps a poor analogy, to know what the secret ingredient is a dish would compel me to either only use that ingredient, or use more of it.
The further a style veers from my own, the more unsettling or "wrong" it feels to the eyes and to the brain. Artists in the past have done this purposefully by creating images that are not natural. Architecture is perhaps more closely related to writing as any form of art. Architecture has structure, rules; sometimes these rules can be bent, other times, to our eyes, they can be broken. The closer I stay to the rules and the structure, the "safer" I feel; I do not get the unsettling feeling and it appears "right" in my eyes.
Above all, I theorize what my secret ingredient is, and that is how I write. Not my style, but my subject. It would be safe to assume that if I were to write anything, I would only write what must be written. Time is a valuable thing and should not be wasted, especially on something that is not meaningful. I can write fictional characters with backgrounds in fictional settings, but poetry is all together different. I may not feel the same forever as I did when I put the words together for my poem, but at that moment in time, I may expose my heart and soul to the reader. Call it being self conscious, but the idea of reading what I have exposed is not something I like to do. This should not be confused with allowing other people to read what I have produced. If anything, besides the act of writing the poem (or story for that matter), being able to see my work bring happiness to someone who enjoyed reading it overshadows any joy I get from writing it.
So to use a well worn phrase to encompass how I feel about my style and the process in which I create poetry: ignorance is bliss.
No comments:
Post a Comment