Thank you very much, Rob. That's actually a pre-PFFA (meaning, pre-writing workshop/class of any kind, not just online)poem which I dug up the other day and had forgotten about. It's full of things PFFAers can't stand: darkness, moon, soul, heart,--- but even after some revisions these things stayed in.
I disabled comments to my blog quite a while back. It's a long story. But thank you very kindly for mentioning my poem.
And your daughter is just beautiful. My eldest boy is eight now and it's amazing how time is slipping away. Best wishes and regards to you, Rob.
Very fine poem, Bill. Of course, words like moon, soul, heart are hard to use well, but you use them very effectively in your poem.
I have been thinking for a while about issuing a challenge in which people have to write a poem that includes certain problematic words. I'm still thinking out the detail.
I've wanted to start a thread at PFFA which deals in some way with what I'll call a kind of poetic rhetoric: does it have a place in poetry? If so, who can get away with it, and why, citing examples. How is this "poetic rhetoric" distinguishable from cliche? Does such a thing exist, or am I just crazy?
The Sphere had a thread about "High-style" or "high talk" or something like that, which I think touched a wee bit on rhetoric, or at least what I think of as a kind of rhetorical mode or style.
In some poets, particularly Yeats and Lorca, I always get a feeling of deja-vu (sp?) when I read them. I come across particular words and even images which I'm almost sure I've seen them use fairly frequently; but for some reason they can get away with it: it's a part of their style. But if some hapless newbie at PFFA tried it, they'd surely get trounced, and probably deservedly so.
I've made comments on Carol Ann Duffy's latest collection in my latest post. Her favourite word throughout her poems is "gift", which occurs again and again in different collections. She gets away with it too. In fact, it's seen as an important motif by which to understand her work.
4 comments:
Thank you very much, Rob. That's actually a pre-PFFA (meaning, pre-writing workshop/class of any kind, not just online)poem which I dug up the other day and had forgotten about. It's full of things PFFAers can't stand: darkness, moon, soul, heart,--- but even after some revisions these things stayed in.
I disabled comments to my blog quite a while back. It's a long story. But thank you very kindly for mentioning my poem.
And your daughter is just beautiful. My eldest boy is eight now and it's amazing how time is slipping away. Best wishes and regards to you, Rob.
Very fine poem, Bill. Of course, words like moon, soul, heart are hard to use well, but you use them very effectively in your poem.
I have been thinking for a while about issuing a challenge in which people have to write a poem that includes certain problematic words. I'm still thinking out the detail.
I know what you mean about time slipping away.
Cheers.
I've wanted to start a thread at PFFA which deals in some way with what I'll call a kind of poetic rhetoric: does it have a place in poetry? If so, who can get away with it, and why, citing examples. How is this "poetic rhetoric" distinguishable from cliche? Does such a thing exist, or am I just crazy?
The Sphere had a thread about "High-style" or "high talk" or something like that, which I think touched a wee bit on rhetoric, or at least what I think of as a kind of rhetorical mode or style.
In some poets, particularly Yeats and Lorca, I always get a feeling of deja-vu (sp?) when I read them. I come across particular words and even images which I'm almost sure I've seen them use fairly frequently; but for some reason they can get away with it: it's a part of their style. But if some hapless newbie at PFFA tried it, they'd surely get trounced, and probably deservedly so.
I think that would be an interesting thread.
I've made comments on Carol Ann Duffy's latest collection in my latest post. Her favourite word throughout her poems is "gift", which occurs again and again in different collections. She gets away with it too. In fact, it's seen as an important motif by which to understand her work.
So I think poetic rhetoric does exist, and is distinguishable from cliché, but exactly how we make these distinctions would make for an interesting discussion.
Post a Comment