Okay, I’ve done some extensive self-reflection, and I think the biggest problem I had with choosing a poem on Monday was that I was trying to veer away from a common “theme” or “technique” that I believe I’m known for in my poems/writing. I’ve noticed that when I am poetically trying to describe an innocent event with a romantic interest, it may come off as me making it sexual, even though that’s not at all what happened. I also noticed that I either skew the events that I’m describing so that they’re unrecognizable to everyone except the people involved or that my attempts to depict my very erratic thought process make it completely illegible.
To address the first point of me writing innocent things that come off as sexual, I think that this has been a result of my first poem, where I hinted at sexual violence. Not all of my poems incorporate that into them, and all of my poems are usually not written about a single person or event. So then I beg to ask the question, how do we string together a collection of poems that may or may not be connected to each other? Should we do what Sergio does, and string them together in a series of vignettes? What if they’re only meant to connect to each other faintly? I think the only way I can get over this is to section my poems off into collections, but maybe based on moods or themes. However, I think this may not serve well for having the element of inference still available for the reader, or having them figure out what the poem could mean to them.Â
In terms of making a random thought process “readable” I suppose I could edit my poems so that the ideas behind them are more concise- cutting and moving details around to help create a more organized poem.
Maybe this is more of a selfish post, because everyone’s writing is different, but if it can be useful to you, then that’s great. If you disagree with anything I said, than please tell me why. This is not a finished product. đŸ™‚
Francesca,
This is not a selfish post, at all! I think a lot of us struggle with this very same feeling. After being introduced to the concept of having a poetic signature, I have been struggling with the idea ever since. Many of the poems that I write are not poems that I would typically gravitate towards to read in my personal time, nor would I consider them something that I would typically write. For instance, some of the critiques I have gotten claim that I have a darker fairytale tone to my poems, which is NOT a tone that I feel comfortable with; however, that’s just how my poems result in.
(Sorry this is all about my own writing.) My point is that after we give our writing to the public, I think that we relinquish some of our control of it. At that point, it becomes everyone else’s poem, except our’s. They can think what they want about what our poem implies, we have no control over it. Therefore, I think you should continue writing what you want to write about and phrasing it the way you want, rather than being worried about other people’s interpretation of it.
I hope this helps! I
Francesca,
This is not a selfish post, at all! I think a lot of us struggle with this very same feeling. After being introduced to the concept of having a poetic signature, I have been struggling with the idea ever since. Many of the poems that I write are not poems that I would typically gravitate towards to read in my personal time, nor would I consider them something that I would typically write. For instance, some of the critiques I have gotten claim that I have a darker fairy tale tone to my poems, which is NOT a tone that I feel comfortable with; however, that’s just how my poems turn out.
(Sorry this is all about my own writing.) My point is that after we give our writing to the public, I think that we relinquish some of our control of it. At that point, it becomes everyone else’s poem, except ours. They can think what they want about what our poem implies, we have no control over it. Therefore, I think you should continue writing what you want to write about and phrasing it the way you want, rather than being worried about other people’s interpretation of it.
I hope this helps!