Tracie Morris: 03.27.06-03.31.06

Well I have to say it's been a real blast hanging out at this website. Thanks for the great comments (including those back-channeled). As yesterday's response post indicated, I want to conclude by talking about working with sound in poetry, which for me, includes the previous posts' references to the different perspectives poets may have, inclusion and notions of community in that vision, and ways in which risk-taking and experimentation can affect how we conceive of communing.

Experimenting:

Okay, the week's almost done and I have a confession—not a confessional poem mind you but, tell the truth, I've been talking about these poems I like and oftentimes they aren't the easiest to understand. The authors often have a reputation for being off the beaten poetry path. Not because they're so deep mind you, but because they're obtuse, non-transparent, odd.

Since I've been speaking about poetic insights about the world that poets may have by fine tuning their creative aptitudes, I'd like to talk a bit more about what the notion of community means in this context.

Can a poetic point of view bring us closer together? Is this what we mean when we read a poem? Clearly people besides the poet get something out of reading the poem, that's why books are published, work is recorded and people tour. But does this generate community? I guess what I'm asking is: What's the difference between participating in a poetic 'moment' as part of a community instead of that as a consumer?

Yesterday’s entry raised questions about the possibility and value of uniquely poetic ways of seeing the world. It may seem a little precious to offer this idea, and maybe it is in the way that precious implies value, but not fragility per se. Precious and strong? Precious and clear maybe? But no more precious than any other kind of seeing and that’s what I hope to get at, and question, with today’s offering.

Hi All!

Like a lot of people probably, who’ve participated in this series, I feel ambivalent about pushing out notes on something I wish I were more familiar with in a medium I think I must certainly need to be hipper on. Ah, well. Poetry and coolness, even comfort aren’t exactly ‘pease in a pod’ no? Lately, I’ve felt a little cut off from poetry being in research mode in another area. Maybe I’ll feel more connected to the poetic community soon (and by hanging out with you) as I did when I visited with friends at AWP this year. I’ve also felt more comforted by stealing away to poetry while I’m thinking academic thoughts. Feeling almost, as if I’m stealing my own soul by using writing time to not cultivate a relationship with non-poetic writing . . . this conventional speech, this mirroring of poetic language, this lighthearted aside, is the breaking of the chronology of language.