Poetry – my vaguest goal
I like a good, quantifiable goal. I’m sure you’ve seen S.M.A.R.T. goals on a briefing slide somewhere, but if you haven’t tripped over that acronym before, you can read about it here. It’s hokey but I like them, and keep my goals and New Years resolutions achievable and quantifiable – write 300 words a day, read 50 books a year, that sort of thing.
But this year when I was setting my literary goals, I found myself writing “poetry” on the list with no quantifiers or qualifiers. I’m pretty sure I don’t mean to actually write any poetry this year. I have a couple of lines rattling around in my head, but I don’t know what I’m doing with them. So, read more poetry? But poetry makes me…anxious. Impatient, almost. I don’t know how to explain myself better than to say it’s too intense, and I prefer to relax into stories. Poetry feels like going into direct sunlight without my Ray-Bans.
Sometimes, rather than give up things for Lent, I memorize 2-3 poems over the 40 days (here’s looking at you, Ozymandias), so I did put on my list to memorize 5 poems this year. I’ve committed exactly zero to memory, though, so please let me know if you have worthy suggestions. I’m open to whatever. If you want to challenge yourself, may I suggest the Rilke poem, “Der Panther.” Auf Deutsch, natürlich.
Or maybe my vague goal includes listening to more poetry, although at first I didn’t think this was quite it, either. I have a CD of poems read by the authors and I literally hate the sound of Sylvia Path reading “Daddy.” (Now you have to poke that bear, don’t you? Don’t say I didn’t warn you).
But I have been hanging around poetry a bit this year, and to keep it all loose feels appropriate to the genre. Best not to be too uptight, I think. You don’t want to have too much of a choke-hold on the words. I’ve gone to two local poetry events, both celebrating the launch of my friend and fellow veteran Leah Fletcher’s first anthology as a publisher:
It was all so normal to listen to local people read their (often very good, in my unschooled but still opinionated opinion) local poems in local pubs. To be around novice and accomplished poets, people writing about nature, funny human interactions, their own places in this city and this world. I love knowing that ordinary people are shaping their thoughts into words – all ages and socioeconomic levels and accents. I wanted to hug the young, bloke-y dudes who hopped up to read unselfconsciously, like it was the most ordinary and accepted thing for a young bloke to do. These poets are helping me render poetry a little less rarified.
Also this year, I’ve been asked to read and review four collections written by female poets from the military community:
These women aren’t pulling any punches, y’all. Their collections are the reason I find reading poetry so hard. There’s no way to hide from the truth in such spare, beautiful, awe-full writing. But it’s a good medium for writing about the military. Perhaps contradictorily, I can handle reading poems about military life.
So in an unquantified way, I think I’m achieving “poetry.” I’m exploring a new genre and being startled into new ways of looking at life. Do you read or write poetry? Please link a poem or collection below!
Thanks for the shout out, Nancy! I loved the smart and funny way you presented this un-S.M.A.R.T. goal and how it might be fitting for poetry.
Here’s a short poem (good for memorizing) that touches on why anyone should bother writing poetry (or stories or essays) in the first place: https://allpoetry.com/if-i-can-stop-
And here’s one to watch that might be more fun than listening to Sylvia Plath on a CD: https://youtu.be/vOO2LmyGlLg?si=f–Q6uanJuDIgJ6o
Good afternoon, my dear Nancy.
Comment: ” I have a couple of lines rattling around in my head, but I don’t know what I’m doing with them. ”
Response: Write them down in your journal. Let them decide later.
Hugs, m
Maggie! How extremely clever of you to write a drabble/poem about goals 🙂 I love it. My response is below. x
Recommended poems for today:
A Brief for the Defense – Jack Gilbert – https://poetrysociety.org/poems/a-brief-for-the-defense
Althea Davis – Hell and Earth
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=739017921602886&set=a.464946589010022
Okay, one last response… I really liked the story of the young man making an honest coin by churning out poems in the Cathedral square in York. THAT’s a model I can admire. I wrote several ‘In One Hundred Words’ challenges for the Pen to Paper writing group today, and decided this ‘In One Hundred Words’ felt like a poem to me, so I’ll share it with you, and challenge you to write… anything… In One Hundred Words and post it.
Buddhist Time Management for Beginners
I learned to seize the day.
I lined up my bullets, I executed my tasks.
I’ve blocked out my time.
I have ring-fenced, I have protected, I have prioritised.
I have established my order of battle.
I have racked and stacked my task list.
I set them up, I knocked them down.
In the last quarter of my life, I choose to open my hand.
I learn to let the day float free.
Now I am learning to water my tasks, to unfold and flow,
through my minutes, my hours, my time, and my days.
Danger Close
The enemy startled me in my nest yesterday.
I ducked low in my car seat and she passed, unseeing
But the near-miss sent me into a tailspin of uncertainty.
What the hell was I doing with my life?
Would my answer make her sneer?
Would I care if it did?
Yes, I would. And this was the worst part:
I checked my sales figures and she was right:
I’m bleeding out my time and talents.
I checked online: it wasn’t her I saw.
She’s still an associate vice president of blah
in upstate nowhere.
And is that somehow better?
Holy jumpin’, I love this whole post and the comments. This, “Poetry feels like going into direct sunlight without my Ray-Bans,” is the most striking poetic line I’ve read in a while. I write poetry, yet I often dislike reading it, for all kinds of reason. Your Danger Close, though, I love. Poems that are like conversations about true things, not linear but still making sense, I love. There’s a poet named Ellen Bass whose work I can only sometimes read, it slices so sharply. And Mary Oliver’s a master of the poem, even when I think, Hunh, that one’s not so good. She allows me to just put it on the page. Thank you for the suggested reads. xx, Nancy, here’s to being startled into a new way of looking at life.
I’m so gratified to hear that you sometimes find poetry hard to read, too, Ellen. I’m taking a writing class now where the instructor is making all his points with poems (instead of short stories or movies, which is more often the case), and even though they’re all war poems I’m finding the class pretty unbearable, too. Maybe for different reasons, lol. Thank you for the recommendation of Ellen Bass – I will look her up! And I love Mary Oliver for her perfection of word choice. She’s one of the few I will stop and read if I trip over her on the socials. I think I follow her (or her estate, or whoever posts on her behalf) on Instagram.
So good to hear you are taking a writing class–I realize I’m hankering to do the same. You might also enjoy the Instagram site, Poetry is not a luxury– https://www.instagram.com/poetryisnotaluxury/