What do we write about?

[twelveoone]

^ this. at least, you have to allow the poem's truth, whatever that is. it's irrelevant if it's reality, or our own truth - be true to what's being written and it will be read as genuine.

chip I love you, now I do have something to write about, something so patently false, make Alice in Wonderland look like Jersey Shore.

Oh crap, I did that, didn't I?

Oh well, back to Gideon. 1201 step programs.

 

[PoetGuy]

aye and there's the rub
you do have to be
It is an more like an "acting range", Kevin Spacey's range is not Brad Pitt's

Which one of us is Tor Johnson?

 

[butters]

chip I love you, now I do have something to write about, something so patently false, make Alice in Wonderland look like Jersey Shore.

Oh crap, I did that, didn't I?

Oh well, back to Gideon. 1201 step programs.

if a thing's written well, disbelief's suspended, right?

be amazing. be

cyan

 

[twelveoone]

Which one of us is Tor Johnson?

Inspector Clay: I'm a big boy now, Johnny. Tor's Character

clip clip clip down the avenue
like she's laying beat - PoetGuy

A gaunt grey matador stands grand before the scorn
Of Venus venom formed, she so transmogrified, -1201

1201 is definitely too polysyllabic.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

I think a point should be made about the clear distinction that almost always exists (to a small degree or to an extent bordering on dissociative identity disorder) between the person who writes and the author persona (and then between the author and the poetic I). Just because the actual person who picks up the pen or sits in front of a computer screen hasn't experienced pain or anguish or transgalactic travel, it doesn't mean that the author can't just fake - and that faking can seem so real, that the author can even fake the ache he (or she) can truly feel. To paraphrase a favourite poem.

like faking orgasms?

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

like faking orgasms?

a la Meg Ryan..............

 

[bogusagain]

Good writers are liars and good liars are believable and the best liars are unquestionably truthful. You have to remain consistent within the laws of the world you create. I write about my experiences and observations. It is all lies but my lies are the truth. I keep writing in hope of becoming a good liar.

 

[butters]

^ i think i need to take this and add it to the 'things i wish i had said' thread!

 

[vrosej10]

Good writers are liars and good liars are believable and the best liars are unquestionably truthful. You have to remain consistent within the laws of the world you create. I write about my experiences and observations. It is all lies but my lies are the truth. I keep writing in hope of becoming a good liar.

the job of writing is 'telling lies about people who never really existed'. I have no idea who said this but it is so apt.

 

[Palba_Noruda]

Poet Guy has had a very happy life. Is he handicapped as a poet by the fact that he's had a happy life?

This reminds me of the vision of heaven that was taught at the church I grew up in. Some idea of heavenly choirs singing beautiful songs of rejoice and thanksgiving. Joy! My grandfather said he heard angel choirs singing to him in the days before he died.

I suppose a poet who has achieved some degree of contentment and happiness may write about the experience of joy in such a way that others can feel it from him.

(There is a book called Connected, by Christakis and Fowler. It doesn't look like it, but it has a lot in there about how things like attitudes and behaviors and emotions are contagious among people. I believe it is the responsibility of the happy poet to experiment and experiment and experiment with ways of writing joy so that the experience leaps from himself to others. Which begs the question, however, if such things are contagious, how is the happy poet able to defend himself against catching misery and other downer vibes from the people around him?)

Poems of utter joy and happiness. Ecstasy? I wish I could think of some examples. It seems like songs that express joy are more easy to think of than poems. I think of songs that put a smile on my face and lift my spirit.

I think some of Whitman's stuff expressed ecstasy. A deeply felt sense of integration with all...


So much modern poetry seems to focus on awful things. How does one write poems about happiness? Is that even possible? [/QUOTE]

What does a happy poet write about?

Freud wrote: "The goal of therapy is to replace the neurotic's unrealistic misery with the normal misery of life."

I tend to agree that there is a normal misery of life. Perhaps PG has found some way of staying cool in such circumstances. Going with the flow. Integrating. Or he just wants to write about the times he's felt joy and happiness? Fair enough. This question is a curious one.

I think there must be some poets of joy.

O the fireman's joys!
I hear the alarm at dead of night,
I hear bells, shouts! I pass the crowd, I run!
The sight of the flames maddens me with pleasure.

-Whitman Song of Joy

 

[twelveoone]

Freud wrote: "The goal of therapy is to replace the neurotic's unrealistic misery with the normal misery of life."



I think there must be some poets of joy.

O the fireman's joys!
I hear the alarm at dead of night,
I hear bells, shouts! I pass the crowd, I run!
The sight of the flames maddens me with pleasure.

-Whitman Song of Joy

maybe you should revisit Freud on this one.
Q. Did Whitman have a history of bedwetting?
and just what is his relationship

with a box of chocolates?