Aug 31, 2010 @ 11:10 pm
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someone I’ve been writing with asked me what my poetry is about. I’ve gotten that question before and usually don’t make a real attempt to answer. or I might make a very casual, off the cuff attempt that doesn’t contain anything I believe in very thoroughly. for some reason in this case I feel like trying to make a sincere attempt to determine what it’s about and devise a brief explanation. so I promised to think about it. I’ve never thought about it very much. and partly because I have barely written any in years I don’t feel like any harm could come from trying to explain it. also… the interloc sternly warned against vague answers. I’m not allowed to say it’s about “life”.
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what’s that line about feeling sorry for people who don’t have a delusional inner world to live their life in? I think that covers about 8/13ths of it.
I think you should put the whole text of your book into MS word and have it do the 100 word auto-summarize thing. Then you would know what your poetry is about.
I just did it with my ms. I now know that my poetry is about fruit and nostalgia. Ta-da!
If someone gives me a long rant about their latest problem like “I just got ripped off by the mechanic” and then ask “what’s poetry about?” you just reflect it back, like “it’s about getting ripped off by the mechanic.” You can regulate that I can’t say ‘life’ but poetry is pushing those regulations. I get an “oh,” because they expect me to say it’s about 19th Century guys looking at ravens. These things tend to be interpreted differently.
auto-summary would probably tell me it’s about boats, goats and feces.
my interim explanation is that it’s about being strange.
it needs further study, tho, as the feds say.