Short Statement on Poetics - #2
Posted: April 14th, 2008, 11:24 pm
Short Statement on Poetics---#2
Hank Williams said, "All you need to write a country song is three chords and the truth."
The trouble with poetry is Truth.
Sure, you can string together a few rhymes,
add some alliteration
and write to fit in some form or another
a sonnet or a quatrain or some exotic haiku
use all the devices
but
Poetry wants to tell you the truth,
or it wants to deceive you in such a way
that you realize the truth.
Poetry declares, but the best poetry implies.
It causes the reader to say, "I Declare!"
Poems are just words arranged in patterns
but they are nothing but macrame lingo or paint-by-the-number kits if they don't cause you to bang your head on the truth.
Hank Williams said, "All you need to write a country song is three chords and the truth."
The trouble with poetry is Truth.
Sure, you can string together a few rhymes,
add some alliteration
and write to fit in some form or another
a sonnet or a quatrain or some exotic haiku
use all the devices
but
Poetry wants to tell you the truth,
or it wants to deceive you in such a way
that you realize the truth.
Poetry declares, but the best poetry implies.
It causes the reader to say, "I Declare!"
Poems are just words arranged in patterns
but they are nothing but macrame lingo or paint-by-the-number kits if they don't cause you to bang your head on the truth.
