The Poet negotiates with the Poem

[PrinceMyshkin]

Poet: I want you to be lofty, but carefee.
Poem: I want to be free.
Poet: Oh, free is good. Free is great! Free...
but meaningful.
With a ringing line or two?
Maybe a final rhyming couplet?
Poem: Eff off!
Poet: [Sulks in silence]
Poem: Well?
Poet: Do as you damn well please.
Just see that you put my name under it.


PrinceSh_thead

[paperleaves]

How charming, rather hilarious, actually, but stinging with hints of truth, dear Prince. How we all have dialogued thus with a poem or two ^_^


love
Kate

[Hawkman]

Marvellous

Thank you, My Prince, for this glimpse of your relationship with your muse ;)

H

[AuntShecky]

This was very light and amusing but underneath shows some of the frustrations in attempting to write verse, both formal and free. This is an occupational hazard among "serious" writers; I hasten to add that even those whose subject matter is humorous can still be "serious" about their craft.

Should a specific poem be metrical and formal or "free?" That depends on the subject matter, but again the poet can take a grim subject and make it funny and vice versa. Usually --but not always -- humorous verse rhymes.

Meter, rhyme, metaphor, and the panoply (love that word!) of literary devices are just helpful "tools" which the poet can use or not use according to his wont.

[PrinceMyshkin]

Marvellous

Thank you, My Prince, for this glimpse of your relationship with your muse ;)

H



My Muse
has no excuse
fir having offered me this poor last rhyme
or for being away
some of the time
to play,
I suspect, with other guys.
(Find a rhyme for that, Ms Smarty-pants!)

[PrinceMyshkin]

This was very light and amusing but underneath shows some of the frustrations in attempting to write verse, both formal and free. This is an occupational hazard among "serious" writers; I hasten to add that even those whose subject matter is humorous can still be "serious" about their craft.

Should a specific poem be metrical and formal or "free?" That depends on the subject matter, but again the poet can take a grim subject and make it funny and vice versa. Usually --but not always -- humorous verse rhymes.

Meter, rhyme, metaphor, and the panoply (love that word!) of literary devices are just helpful "tools" which the poet can use or not use according to his wont.

I pretend to myself that every poem I attempt is sui generis.

As for your love of "panoply," how do you feel about verisimilitude or crepuscular?

[MorpheusSandman]

Hehe, those last lines really seal it. I doubt there isn't an artist alive or dead that's never had that feeling. I think I've come to the conclusion it's useless to try and consciously control how art turns out. That's not to say we shouldn't learn, but we have to learn well enough that it gets down into that part of us that art gushes from in the first place or else we're bound to be disappointed.

[PrinceMyshkin]

Hehe, those last lines really seal it. I doubt there isn't an artist alive or dead that's never had that feeling. I think I've come to the conclusion it's useless to try and consciously control how art turns out. That's not to say we shouldn't learn, but we have to learn well enough that it gets down into that part of us that art gushes from in the first place or else we're bound to be disappointed.

Graham Greene once wrote that a writer was a person who always failed (presumably in his writings), but it is an endless, sometimes interesting negotiation between one's desire to do very well and one's eagerness to have something - anything - to show.

[symphony]

My muse is not even here for me to fight with.

[Hawkman]

Graham Greene once wrote that a writer was a person who always failed (presumably in his writings), but it is an endless, sometimes interesting negotiation between one's desire to do very well and one's eagerness to have something - anything - to show.

Speaking as a professional failure, (in fact failure is probably the only thing I ever succeeded at) these words give me hope that I am indeed a writer!

With empathy and encouragement to all who strive

H

[PrinceMyshkin]

Speaking as a professional failure, (in fact failure is probably the only thing I ever succeeded at) these words give me hope that I am indeed a writer!

With empathy and encouragement to all who strive

H

What's that advice someone once gave: "Fail better next time."

[PrinceMyshkin]

My muse is not even here for me to fight with.

Too bad - because when you used to fight with it, there were two winners: you - and us!

[Babyguile]

Ingenious good chap! I absolutely loved this it is very true of my own thought process when I'm trying to write a good poem.

So bloody original! :D

[neilgee]

Offbeat, excellent, a great pleasure.

[AimusSage]

Poet: I want you to be lofty, but carefee.
Poem: I want to be free.
Poet: Oh, free is good. Free is great! Free...
but meaningful.
With a ringing line or two?
Maybe a final rhyming couplet?
Poem: Eff off!
Poet: [Sulks in silence]
Poem: Well?
Poet: Do as you damn well please.
Just see that you put my name under it.


PrinceSh_thead
Those dastardly poems, always having a will of their own ;)

[Bar22do]

What a dialogue! as if you were hearing my own thoughts. But sometimes I have a hard time putting my name under a poem that thus writes itself.

[PrinceMyshkin]

What a dialogue! as if you were hearing my own thoughts. But sometimes I have a hard time putting my name under a poem that thus writes itself.

Thank you, but if the latter is a problem, put my name underneath it instead.

[PrinceMyshkin]

Forgive me for bumping this (as if I didn't already take up enough space) but I had so much fun reading the replies to it that I hoped for one or two more.

[hillwalker]

Written and first posted before I hit the Lit Net button for the first time..... so this is a new one on me.

Very intriguing, and proof that the poem often writes itself (which is why the poet has quite a nerve expecting any praise for his efforts.. so you'll get none from me).

H

[Delta40]

Yes, who has the upper hand in this damn relationship of mine?

[Jerrybaldy]

Oh how I thought of a witty reply Prince but for this one I am going to have to go old school (that school of a week or so ago) and just say I absolutely loved it. It is truely a poem I wished I had written but I fear if I lived to 198 I would not have thought of the comic genius of the poem talking back to the poet. fantastic.

[Pensive]

Basically a light poem highlighting the troubles a writer faces while penning down his thoughts. I love how you put it; all the struggle between a writer and his work. :)

[PrinceMyshkin]

Thanks Hill, Delta, Jerry and Pensive.

[Lumiere]

If you would kindly stay out of my brain from now on, Prince. (And what careless sentry gave you permission to enter? They're as good as fired.)

I put this one in the "Funny Cause It's True" file.

[Buh4Bee]

Fun. I'm not sure how much negotiation went on here, but the poem won. I guess it is free. haha!