Poetry, even when apparently most fantastic, is always a revolt against artifice, a revolt, in a sense, against actuality. – James Joyce
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"We are all writing God's Poem." - Anne Sexton
Isn't that what we are doing, Immortalizing some great truth in our poetry? I don't think that Anne Sexton had a monopoly on this. To the extent that any of us can actually discern what God is wanting us to write, I think Sexton may have gotten dangerously close with The Fury off God's Good-bye. She may have come close with several poems. Sexton wrote often from a great personal depth - she had a courageous way about her when she was unzipping her soul for us all to see. I want to be as daring. Not necessarily with confessional poetry, but in general. I think if we are going to write God's poem(s) I'm pretty certain he/she wants us to go bold. He/She is not going to be happy with some casual writing, I'm sure he/she expects us to reveal a bit of our heart - put ourselves on the line. Otherwise, who will want to read it. "Every flesh is flawed and poems are flesh." ~ Donald Hall
I think Donald Hall, who I greatly respect, has identified the very human nature of poetry in this statement. We shape word groupings together to establish a creation of language and we hope that it lives up to expectations - both our own and those who read it. But being the imperfect people that we all are, we may write something really well and yet we must know it can be improved. This falls along the same lines that a poem is never finished, just abandoned. We take the work so far, and maybe we are overthinking it, or tired, or just believe that it is the best that it can be, but we stop. The hope is that when we reach this point, the words will suffice. They will resonate. Knowing fell well that at a future point, we might improve upon this poem. This past week has been an emotion filled and energy draining week. If it were not for the the two civilians shot and killed by police and the 10 Dallas police officers shot by a sniper killing 5 and wounding two other civilians, I could still be mulling over this same question in my mind.
The fact is, we live in distressing times. Terrorist attacks at home and abroad, destabilizing economies around the world, epidemic gun deaths across the United States, North Korea testing medium range missals, daily barrage of hate openly expressed by people because of gender, nationality, sexual orientation, religion, and a presidential contender that routinely fans the hateful fires that rip us apart. What are we supposed to do? There is an internal voice that wants to argue with me about this. Actually, there are two separate voices. (I know, this is scary to me too) One voice keeps telling me that all this crap going on in the world is consuming me and my time. That I only have so much time, and it is also smothering what creativity I have to offer. This voice cautions me against becoming overwhelmed by it all. Still, the other voice, (which is just certain it is the wiser of the two) reminds me of the words of Edmund Burke, "The only thing necessary for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing." This is my voice that reminds me it is important to stay informed and not count on others to do this on my behalf. Bad things have happened throughout history when people assumed others would do the right thing on your behalf. There is no one correct voice here. They both speak to truths. The answer has to fall somewhere in between. I must do my homework, so to speak, and be informed both for the purpose of voting and also being outspoken when and where necessary. At the same time I must allow myself to break at times from extensive and draining news coverage of things. I must allow myself time to take a walk and absorb nature. Take a long soaking bath. Or read just for the recreation of it. Years ago I learned that we should never lose our ability to become indigent when something is wrong. Now, I need to learn how to feed optimism and believe in change for the better. I also need to keep open the pathway to writing and not feel overwhelmed by the world or the struggle to write what needs to be said. "There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside." ~ Maya Angelou
Now that I can identify what the problem is, let's see if I can do something about it. |
AuthorMichael Allyn Wells - notes & musings Archives
November 2023
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