I think of myself as a storyteller, Radha. One who happens to sometimes tell the stories in prose, sometimes in poetry, and often in the betwixty, liminal space between the two. With images as a bonus. For me, a collage is a story, as much as a poem - even a non-narrative poem, hell bent on exploring language - is a story.
(And when I say "story" I mean to encompass fiction, memoir, other creative nonfiction, and all the things that are written in the grey areas.)
I think of myself as a writer, whether I'm using words, images or a combination of the two. Yes, one can write a collage.
I like that we're being offered insight into an alternative. For the present, at least until/if a project- -book project becomes apparent to me, I continue to be guided by what arrives unbidden.
Great revealing concepts about constellations and connection to poetry. I am trying to figure out how to capitalize on producing thematic material that uses my natural attraction for certain subjects. These subjects do not seem to follow any particular theme but I see the value in categorizing them.
I remain confused, but much better enlightened, on this topic. Having had all the advice you were given, here I am with stacks of poems that I've poured over, ordered, sequenced, reimagined by theme, tone, and subject. I feel the thread that unites them, the arc, etc. Others do as well. Perhaps these poems will just remain in their stack. Now I am straining to settle on a theme for a next manuscript. This is not because I think a themed book is inherently superior, but because more publishers wish to publish themed books. And because I'd like to experience the process of creating one. What I'd really like to know is, what do we want to read? Just as a poem reveals itself to us as we write, a book of poems may do the same. I am, however, ready to adopt advice to proceed with a plan.
I love "I remain confused, but much better enlightened" ..."ready to adopt advice to proceed with a plan." I am glad I signed up for the classes and hope to answer some of my questions about how to organize my work and my creative process. B.George
A constellation is a good metaphor for a book of poems, where the lines between poems are not always obvious to the reader at first.
I don’t have any education as a poet, so can’t recall advice I was never given, but it seems that anytime you’re consciously writing a sequence of poems, you’ll naturally begin to wonder if it’s enough for a chapbook, even a collection. For example, looking here at Adrian Matejka’s The Big Smoke, poems about the boxer Jack Johnson, it’s hard not to imagine him seeing this as a book very early on.
Maybe one indicator would be if a group of poems work better together than separately, build on each other and take on energy from preceding poems (eg, Spoon River Anthology). If so, then they should be collected in one place and in a particular order. For now we call that a book, although that may change. For example, in music, which is dominant now, the old-fashioned album, curated by the musician, or the playlist, curated by the listener?
But maybe those groups of poems are the exceptions. Normally I find it hard to think about a collection as a thing, a seamless experience like a novel, only about individual poems that stick in my head. This may be in part because books also often have poems that are pretty dull and the fear of encountering these and then slogging through them detracts from the total experience. In albums, those are called filler songs. Novels seldom have filler chapters, so maybe it’s particular to collections.
I think of myself as a storyteller, Radha. One who happens to sometimes tell the stories in prose, sometimes in poetry, and often in the betwixty, liminal space between the two. With images as a bonus. For me, a collage is a story, as much as a poem - even a non-narrative poem, hell bent on exploring language - is a story.
(And when I say "story" I mean to encompass fiction, memoir, other creative nonfiction, and all the things that are written in the grey areas.)
I think of myself as a writer, whether I'm using words, images or a combination of the two. Yes, one can write a collage.
I like that we're being offered insight into an alternative. For the present, at least until/if a project- -book project becomes apparent to me, I continue to be guided by what arrives unbidden.
Great revealing concepts about constellations and connection to poetry. I am trying to figure out how to capitalize on producing thematic material that uses my natural attraction for certain subjects. These subjects do not seem to follow any particular theme but I see the value in categorizing them.
I remain confused, but much better enlightened, on this topic. Having had all the advice you were given, here I am with stacks of poems that I've poured over, ordered, sequenced, reimagined by theme, tone, and subject. I feel the thread that unites them, the arc, etc. Others do as well. Perhaps these poems will just remain in their stack. Now I am straining to settle on a theme for a next manuscript. This is not because I think a themed book is inherently superior, but because more publishers wish to publish themed books. And because I'd like to experience the process of creating one. What I'd really like to know is, what do we want to read? Just as a poem reveals itself to us as we write, a book of poems may do the same. I am, however, ready to adopt advice to proceed with a plan.
I love "I remain confused, but much better enlightened" ..."ready to adopt advice to proceed with a plan." I am glad I signed up for the classes and hope to answer some of my questions about how to organize my work and my creative process. B.George
Wow! Thanks for this. Liberating and affirming.
A constellation is a good metaphor for a book of poems, where the lines between poems are not always obvious to the reader at first.
I don’t have any education as a poet, so can’t recall advice I was never given, but it seems that anytime you’re consciously writing a sequence of poems, you’ll naturally begin to wonder if it’s enough for a chapbook, even a collection. For example, looking here at Adrian Matejka’s The Big Smoke, poems about the boxer Jack Johnson, it’s hard not to imagine him seeing this as a book very early on.
Maybe one indicator would be if a group of poems work better together than separately, build on each other and take on energy from preceding poems (eg, Spoon River Anthology). If so, then they should be collected in one place and in a particular order. For now we call that a book, although that may change. For example, in music, which is dominant now, the old-fashioned album, curated by the musician, or the playlist, curated by the listener?
But maybe those groups of poems are the exceptions. Normally I find it hard to think about a collection as a thing, a seamless experience like a novel, only about individual poems that stick in my head. This may be in part because books also often have poems that are pretty dull and the fear of encountering these and then slogging through them detracts from the total experience. In albums, those are called filler songs. Novels seldom have filler chapters, so maybe it’s particular to collections.