Tuesday, May 15, 2007

When Versifying...

Take time to make it sound good. The words must roll about in your mouth, becoming bigger and more poignant than they are, becoming greater things in themselves and in the light of each other. Make it as though the world conspired to make those phrases happen, and their coming into being had some real purpose, not a scribble on a whim to be flung to the breeze. Make it such that when you read and re-read it there are hidden and hinted meanings in every word and every line, like an onion coming to pieces under the observation- light of a microscope. Make it so that it means everything you want it to, and some things the reader wants it to, but has a meaning of its own, beyond all the small, personal ones, so that when you hold it up to the moonlight for verification, there is something there, a pearl on paper, and the moonlight laughs at foolish mortals who read and never see, never know, never understand the bigness of the whole thing. A big thing, in a small thing, and a precise, perfect, painstaking production of pain and protest- your poem.
It's quite a bit of pressure, you must admit.

1 comment:

joey said...

that is exactly how i feel about poetry..u musnt write because u can but because you have something new and important to say...