A Poetic Statement by Me

Who am I as a Poet?  That is something that is ever changing, every reading, every lecture, every workshop, every poem read, every poem written.

How did I come to Poetry? Poetry came to me.  Literally. I was in class called Transforming Life Into Literature for the continuing ed creative writing program at McMaster University.  We were told to take two books from the front table and write an essay on how the authors had used their life experiences to produce these pieces of literature.  Randomly they were both books of poetry.  I couldn't believe how great the books were. In particular the Canadian poet Patrick Lanes's book The Bare Plum Of Winter Rain.  I immediately started writing poetry and put aside prose. That was almost fifteen years ago.

If I think about what was this appeal of poetry for me it is encapsulated in this statement by the poet Marie Howe where she defines poetry as “a cup of language to hold what can’t be said.” Poetry at its best seems for me to elevate beyond the narrative experience of simple prose to accomplish this extraordinary thing.

What things am I thinking about poetically, challenges and goals? I am thinking about how to get at the best poem from the initial first blurt, how to carve out the true poem.  In terms of goals, my main goal is to write interesting work, in particular work that will keep me interested, I don't want to bore myself.

My philosophy on poetry...Something I've learned in the last few years, especially at SMC, is that rules I've assumed are valid often aren't.  I have learned to begin questioning the rules I use for writing and also use for editing others. So my philosophy is to look at whether poems work not based on some set of rules, but the effects of the poem itself.