Like in the poem below, my poetry often reflects the "me" I want to be, or the "me" I think I am somewhere. I sometimes think I'm stronger and have more clarity in my poems than I do in "real life." There is that place. I get to be that person every time I read the poem. Though not all my poems are "about" me, they certainly all reflect me.
I like the way Joan Didion says it: "I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see, and what it means."
5 comments:
I didn't read this until after I had read your beautiful poem below. I think this is a great point. In some way or another, we're usually involved in a poem, aren't we? And writing teaches us so much. Great post and food for thought. Yum:)
You know this comment pulled me up short and made me have one of those lightbulb moments. The me in my poems, and I use the term lightly because I do write a lot of stuff that isn't remotely autobiographical, though of course it will be informed by my observations and life experiences, anyway, my 'me' poems is often falling part or escaping and yet in real life I'm a fairly together person, very sensitive yes, but not crumbling, actually pretty happy as it goes.....this is telling me something.
Jo, that's so fascinating! Almost like the opposite of what I do...like you can fall apart in your poems but not in real life. It tells me something else about myself too. Oh wow.
Perhaps many of us are in that boat, too.
Sharon Olds said, at her reading, that the 'I' in her poems is much braver and bolder than she is in her everyday world.
I am trying to find the courage to reveal the part of myself that isn't at all my ideal version, but it's not easy. Like Ret said, many of us are in that boat.
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