Something I Said...
Thank you to the WayBack Machine Internet Archive , I was able to find all the old posts that disappeared into cosmos when I freaked out and deleted my old blog three years ago.
If you ever decide to delete your blog, please keep a copy for yourself. I am thankful for the Wayback Machine for keeping *most* of what I wrote. A few things were lost, but that was my lesson to learn. And I did.
Since it's National Poetry Month, I decided to revisit an old post I wrote about the kind of poet I was or wanted to be. It was written November 6, 2005. Oddly, not much has changed in how I see myself, see others, and see the poetry world.
So here we are going way back with an oldie from my old (now deleted) blog--
I am not edgy, I’m butter, I’m curvy, I'm soft. I like poets who are edgy though, but not just for the sake of edginess, to swear in a poem because their parents never let them cuss in the house when they were young, to talk about sex because they aren’t having any, to show pain or torture just to be interesting.
Poems about nothing special usually are, unless they become something they’re not. I’ll take a thousand poems by William Stafford over one by Fancy Pants X, his gianormous vocabulary and his special study in onthophagus phanaeiformis in the Sakaerat Biosphere unless it's a good poem.
I do not want to be part of a school or poetic movement. If I am in a school or movement, it’s because of geography. I’m okay with geography; I'm happy being a Northwest Poet. I’m not okay being a part of a group because of my style, form, voice, etc. If I find myself writing a certain way all the time, I try to write differently. I don’t want to be my own shadow or yesterday’s photograph. Unless yesterday’s photo was really good, then I may try to wear my hair like that again, but a different pair of jeans and t-shirt. And this time, I’ll go barefoot.
Poets who pretend to know more than me (or you) really don’t.
If I had to name the place where I am in life, the state would be Always Learning in the city of Not Enough Memory. If I arrive to the country of Knowitall, take my passport away.
My address has always been 1313 Mockingbird Lane. I watched a lot of television as a child. I watched a lot and still wanted to be an artist, a writer. I went for years without watching TV because I thought it made me better, I’ve learned that it just gave me more time.
I do not discard poets because they are:
1) too popular 2) unpopular.
I discard poets that bore me.
I honestly believe the best poets are the ones who find themselves needing to write and not understanding why. Both plans and chaos scare me. There are times I believe that all of this will disappear and the poems will never come again. And even if I were to never write another poem, I will always read poetry, though with an ache of wanting to write it.
- Kelli
6 November 2005
If you ever decide to delete your blog, please keep a copy for yourself. I am thankful for the Wayback Machine for keeping *most* of what I wrote. A few things were lost, but that was my lesson to learn. And I did.
Since it's National Poetry Month, I decided to revisit an old post I wrote about the kind of poet I was or wanted to be. It was written November 6, 2005. Oddly, not much has changed in how I see myself, see others, and see the poetry world.
So here we are going way back with an oldie from my old (now deleted) blog--
I am not edgy, I’m butter, I’m curvy, I'm soft. I like poets who are edgy though, but not just for the sake of edginess, to swear in a poem because their parents never let them cuss in the house when they were young, to talk about sex because they aren’t having any, to show pain or torture just to be interesting.
Poems about nothing special usually are, unless they become something they’re not. I’ll take a thousand poems by William Stafford over one by Fancy Pants X, his gianormous vocabulary and his special study in onthophagus phanaeiformis in the Sakaerat Biosphere unless it's a good poem.
I do not want to be part of a school or poetic movement. If I am in a school or movement, it’s because of geography. I’m okay with geography; I'm happy being a Northwest Poet. I’m not okay being a part of a group because of my style, form, voice, etc. If I find myself writing a certain way all the time, I try to write differently. I don’t want to be my own shadow or yesterday’s photograph. Unless yesterday’s photo was really good, then I may try to wear my hair like that again, but a different pair of jeans and t-shirt. And this time, I’ll go barefoot.
Poets who pretend to know more than me (or you) really don’t.
If I had to name the place where I am in life, the state would be Always Learning in the city of Not Enough Memory. If I arrive to the country of Knowitall, take my passport away.
My address has always been 1313 Mockingbird Lane. I watched a lot of television as a child. I watched a lot and still wanted to be an artist, a writer. I went for years without watching TV because I thought it made me better, I’ve learned that it just gave me more time.
I do not discard poets because they are:
1) too popular 2) unpopular.
I discard poets that bore me.
I honestly believe the best poets are the ones who find themselves needing to write and not understanding why. Both plans and chaos scare me. There are times I believe that all of this will disappear and the poems will never come again. And even if I were to never write another poem, I will always read poetry, though with an ache of wanting to write it.
- Kelli
6 November 2005
Lovely post...and rings of truth!
ReplyDeleteI was wondering if you'd be so kind as to add the links to my two blogs for which I'm doing poetry book give-aways for National Poetry Month.
They are as follows:
Stacy Lynn Mar address www.stacylynnmar.blogspot.com
Weekly Book Reviews www.weeklybookreviews.blogspot.com
And I thank you ever so kindy!
I adore this post - so very true. For me, I find life in a poem when there is honesty - honesty to the writer, the poet, his or her vibrancy. Anything less may be a great conglomeration of words...but go down tasting kinda dry.
ReplyDeleteI love this post! I was on that place of not writing poems or reading them for a good five years and there was a definitve ache.
ReplyDelete