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On Becoming An Impressionist (revision3)

General Poetry - post, comment, review, critique
Matty11
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Joined: Thu Jan 11, 2018 7:58 pm

Re: On Becoming An Impressionist (revision2)

Post by Matty11 » Tue Mar 02, 2021 10:45 pm

As to your comment I included above, I could not agree more. Poets are not expository writers. Of course there are poems intentionally written to be obtuse, a matter of confusing that with ambiguity but I don't want everything to be spelled out for me--overkill. 
hi Linda,
              I think there are plenty of 'templates' for poets to work within, the history of literature is littered with manifestos and movements (as is Art). Folk get quite heated about it :)
If the N wants to quit writing why the concern, or at least mention, that the poem lacks clues? And why is there a poem being posted about not writing anymore? THAT is the puzzle isn't it?
Yes, that is quite a paradox!

Time to revise :lol:

cheers

Phil
 

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Qwerty
Posts: 34
Joined: Wed Jan 27, 2021 12:07 pm
Location: Southern California

Re: On Becoming An Impressionist (revision3)

Post by Qwerty » Wed Mar 03, 2021 1:09 pm

Well, I like your poem and perhaps version 3 best of all. It touched the poet in me because I always run my poems through my wife's filter, and if she tips her head, I worry that other readers might tip their heads too because I've not found that tricky balance between confusing, enigmatic and ambiguous. Can't count the times I've given up on a poem or a story and told myself that's it. I'm going to be husband and a cyclist. Period. End of conversation. And I back peddle the next day, of course, because being a writer, especially a poet, is who I am, not just what I do. 

As I've mentioned in other posts, some poems make me feel as if I'm working a cross word puzzle without the clues. But yours did not. And I've written poems like that myself and wondered how far I should trust readers to invest themselves in my poem to find something for themselves below the surface and between the lines.
Words go together in zillions of ways. Some ways go shallow and some ways go deep. ~ James Dickey

indar
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Joined: Sun Jan 07, 2018 8:00 am

Re: On Becoming An Impressionist (revision3)

Post by indar » Wed Mar 03, 2021 1:17 pm


Matty11
Posts: 1585
Joined: Thu Jan 11, 2018 7:58 pm

Re: On Becoming An Impressionist (revision3)

Post by Matty11 » Wed Mar 03, 2021 10:37 pm

Thanks Q. and Linda.
And I back peddle the next day, of course, because being a writer, especially a poet, is who I am, not just what I do. 
Yep, been there! Including, checking with my wife. I'm quite relaxed about 'silence' because poems always come knocking and I'm there to give them words :)

all the best

Phil

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