If you have taught, or are a teacher of writing, go to Tricia’s blog and read Michael J. Rosen on poetic form. Much of what he says could be directed to the teaching of English in general, but I loved what he had to say as he referenced the wonderful Yeats quote, “We make out of the quarrel with others rhetoric, but of the quarrel with ourselves, poetry.” (“Anima Hominis,” Essays, 1924) Mr. Rosen describes form as the ring in which a writer can wrestle ideas. That’s very evocative for me. And the idea of poetry as arguing with myself? Also very true, in many ways — as I realized with my poems for this Friday. I laugh a little about how much angst is in my poetry, as if I’m still thirteen and annoyed with my mother — but I also find that experimenting with an working through these forms this year have given me an excuse to ask questions and …answer myself in poetic form. I hadn’t realized that’s what I was doing, but when I came up with a car-related pantoum, I realized it was in response to feeling like a broken-down old car. I’ll be sharing that Friday, so stay tuned. Meanwhile…
I’m ready to roll!
some cars are old, and others
are known as classics
