tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15916138.post4810450457640913511..comments2023-09-25T05:45:41.437-07:00Comments on The Art of Fiction: What's a poem about?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15916138.post-62211736581241814872011-09-04T02:16:04.283-07:002011-09-04T02:16:04.283-07:00Some good points as ever, Jim, particularly about ...Some good points as ever, Jim, particularly about how people understand poems. I sometimes read reviews and think they must have been given some gloss from the author. I had a poem in my last collection called "The Borrowers", and it wasn't about the little people from the story, but to kind of evoke something about childhood.Adrian Slatcherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13946068316432524571noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15916138.post-34553225677699766232011-09-03T05:42:41.572-07:002011-09-03T05:42:41.572-07:00When I was young and had a rather romantic view of...When I was young and had a rather romantic view of inspiration I used to believe that a poem’s function was to contain <i>a</i> meaning and that if people didn’t get my poem, didn’t understand exactly what I was getting at, then I’d failed. Nowadays I still try and imbue my poetry with meaning but I acknowledge the fact that all writing, but especially all poetry, is a collaborative process and I have no control over what my readers are capable or willing to contribute. People look at clouds and imagine they look like things or animals but if you’ve never seen an elephant how would you know if a cloud looked like one? Of course you can be considerate to your readers. The last poem I wrote I named ‘After Sisyphus’ because most people are familiar with the story. My preferred title would have been ‘Tabernacle’ because I’m talking about a place one enters to perform ceremonies and I was thinking about what the apostle Paul said when he called the body a temple but I’m not sure too many people would make that particular connection and if they were going to they’ll do it naturally because all the information is still there. I wrote a poem once and called it ‘Unholy’ – about a six-legged beetle – and the editor who rejected it did so because he didn’t think his readers would make the connection; numbers are significant in the Bible and whereas seven is a holy number, six (one short of perfection) is not.<br /><br />Just because we live in a modern world doesn’t mean that all the questions metaphysics posed have been answered. Most were probably unanswerable in any absolute way but even those answers that were proposed have needed modification. For years my whipping boy was the nature of truth. I think I’ve got that one out of my system but there are so many others.<br /><br>Jim Murdochhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786388638146471193noreply@blogger.com