A NOTE TO THOSE WHO BOUGHT MY BOOK (HAWK & SONGBIRD)
I have received some comments, and some silent longings, for my poetry to be as accessible (i.e., directly understandable) as my email medical updates to you.
For my friends who find poetry a mystery, here are some notes I hope will increase your enjoyment.
Poetry is the most condensed form of language. It uses forms and employs a kind of logic different from straight information gathering.
· Poetry is music! Poetry is made to be read aloud so you can hear it – rhythm, rhyme, the march of strong stress, the tiptoe of words with slight stress. You don’t have to read aloud; but think about it this way and you may begin to hear it in your head. Then again, try moving your lips and quietly reading it to yourself.
· Punctuation. I do not use punctuation in my poetry (except for the occasional question mark). Instead, I leave four spaces between words where I want you to pause (pausing is what most punctuation does). My use of spacing is meant to help you.
· Sentences. I BEGIN SENTENCES with a capital letter. This clues you to hear the beginning of a thought.
· As you read pause at the extra spaces and pause at the end of lines
The end of a line
a double line break between stanzas
both indicate the reader should give a slight pause Sometimes
taking a short breath at the end of a line accomplishes a nice
pause
· Have you noticed that the breaks and breathing slow down your reading? Yes, as it should. Condensed language is brim-full of meaning. Slower reading gives time to think along the way.
· Much contemporary poetry is either “lyric” or “narrative”. Narrative poetry tells a story, it is usually easy to follow the story. Lyric poetry should not be thought of as songlike (as in music lyrics). Lyric poetry expresses the author’s thoughts and feelings.
· Poetry wants to employ all your senses to describe things, so it uses sight, smell, sound, taste, touch and images. Oh, we poets want images to do the talking.
Lyric and narrative poetry use “approximations” (often called metaphor/simile). Approximations are used to talk about something for which there are limited exact synonyms. Approximations are like saying, “It’s kind of like this…” Example: In one of my poems, I talk about slogging through mud in my garden, finding ants and aphids on the flowers. This approximates my year of slogging through clinical/hospital procedures, medicine seeming to both help and hurt at times. The bloom of peonies and roses in the end approximates the unexpected joy of life I found.
· My poetry goes back and forth between lyric and narrative. A little story is like an open door into the poem. Approximations enlarge understanding, talk about things too big for words.
Dana’s engineering default is to value the definable, quantifiable, and measurable. Literal rationale. My beloved has come a long way in his knowledge and love for poetry and creative writing. He has even written a few poems, with help from his golfing friend and poet Dan B (Gonzaga English prof). Sometimes he’s in bed reading one of my poems – “what’s with this…I’m not getting it at all.”
“Would you like me to read it out loud to you?”
“Ok, fine.”
Then he’s moved. He gets it. Or some of it. A nice frill of being married. A marvelous side effect of hearing someone else read.
In that light, I am having a reading of my poetry. This will be an online reading with my dear friend Laurie Klein, who also has had a new book published, House of 49 Doors.
Saturday May 4th 9am to 10:15 (PDT)
(SO that just happened! You missed it HAH). Here is a link of the recording, if you feel curious…
and if you want just audio…
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