03-21-2013, 07:29 AM
All's good...don't worry and no need to sigh.
When I first joined I got awfully frustrated about people / readers having to understand exactly what I wrote and why and to argue the case for every jot and dot. (I often still want to). However, there was a spate of discussions concerning this obsession and compulsion and following this I was won over to the idea that once a poem is made public it is in the eye, ear and understanding of the reader to interpret the poem.
It might well be that I was being slow here, (so for example Oh!...the instrument not the person!, this is now obvious, but reading it cold this did not come to me), or it might be the case that the images do not translate as well on the page as they do in the mind of the writer. (As a reader I actually liked the image of the doe being free in body and spirit as she picks her way through the covering shadows to avoid being seen in the moonlight...this has a stronger resonance for me in terms of my knowledge of watching the roe deer on the farm, than that of the relevance of the shape of the moon. I was happy in this image and enjoyed the read based on this).
So I suppose this is an ongoing question for all poets to wrestle with:- Is it essential that I (the reader) need to subscribe to the image you (the write) had in mind when you wrote the poem or should we allow the words to be set free from our own limitations and stand or fall on the power they contain to convey an image or an idea to each individual reader?)
This comment is not made in anyway as an aggressive or snippy comeback but rather I hope, as i intended it to be, is simply passing on what for me was an enlightening and positive thought about the art of poetry, on my path of discovery and pleasure that has been my experience on this site.
At the end of the day I am still new to all of this. (Todd recently commented that he had been at this poetry lark for some 22yrs...on that basis, what do I know, I'm still a poetry puppy!)...all I can do is offer an opinion or what I hope is constructive feedback. So in this spirit, it is my hope that I have managed to comunicate with grace and clarity the help that was offered to me concerning the delicate subject of what others make, or in some cases don't make of your poems.
All the best AJ.
When I first joined I got awfully frustrated about people / readers having to understand exactly what I wrote and why and to argue the case for every jot and dot. (I often still want to). However, there was a spate of discussions concerning this obsession and compulsion and following this I was won over to the idea that once a poem is made public it is in the eye, ear and understanding of the reader to interpret the poem.
It might well be that I was being slow here, (so for example Oh!...the instrument not the person!, this is now obvious, but reading it cold this did not come to me), or it might be the case that the images do not translate as well on the page as they do in the mind of the writer. (As a reader I actually liked the image of the doe being free in body and spirit as she picks her way through the covering shadows to avoid being seen in the moonlight...this has a stronger resonance for me in terms of my knowledge of watching the roe deer on the farm, than that of the relevance of the shape of the moon. I was happy in this image and enjoyed the read based on this).
So I suppose this is an ongoing question for all poets to wrestle with:- Is it essential that I (the reader) need to subscribe to the image you (the write) had in mind when you wrote the poem or should we allow the words to be set free from our own limitations and stand or fall on the power they contain to convey an image or an idea to each individual reader?)
This comment is not made in anyway as an aggressive or snippy comeback but rather I hope, as i intended it to be, is simply passing on what for me was an enlightening and positive thought about the art of poetry, on my path of discovery and pleasure that has been my experience on this site.
At the end of the day I am still new to all of this. (Todd recently commented that he had been at this poetry lark for some 22yrs...on that basis, what do I know, I'm still a poetry puppy!)...all I can do is offer an opinion or what I hope is constructive feedback. So in this spirit, it is my hope that I have managed to comunicate with grace and clarity the help that was offered to me concerning the delicate subject of what others make, or in some cases don't make of your poems.
All the best AJ.