Meter Readers
In Honor of Our Soon Coming New Column
What Value Form?
By Jan Fields
Beginning in October, Meter Readers will spotlight
a different poetic form in each issue. For those of you who caught Laura
Purdie Salas’ brilliant article on diamantes, you have an idea of what
you’ll be seeing here. Now, many people who dabble in poetry never think
much about form or spend any time learning all the “jargon” of poetry.
And it’s true that you can write lovely poetry even if you have no idea
what makes a Tonka different from a Haiku.
So why is it worthwhile to learn about different poetic forms?
Basically, many of us are pretty self-indulgent when we write totally
without any form or structure. I know my college year poetry was totally
without any kind of form and it … well…stunk – full of emotional
declarations and abstract wordiness without any of the real beauty that
poetry has to offer. Often we find real freedom when we begin
experimenting with the limits of form. It makes us work harder and see
deeper. It can force us to move beyond the obvious and what comes first
to mind and see more deeply.
I’ll give an example; I was visiting
the journal
of Laura Purdie Salas. Every Thursday she posts a photo and invites
visitors to write a poem of 15 words or less. (It’s fun by the way, if
you haven’t visited, you should).
One day she posted a haunting photo of an old beached boat. It made me
think about the antagonistic relationship between boats and the sea. The
sea is wild and rough and can be vicious. Boats are an attempt by man to
create a safe place in that wildness. But, I also saw that without the
sea, the boat was dropped on the rough land because the sea held the
boat up. Without the sea, the boat was buffeted by wind without the
recourse of movement, and scoured by sand. And since I was dealing
painfully with the fact that my husband was in the hospital and I missed
him – I really related to that boat. Now I could have gone on and on
about the feelings the boat brought. I could have compared it to my own
feelings about being separated from my husband. But I only had 15 words
– so I couldn’t indulge in any of that. Instead I wrote:
Beached
Leaning on air
and hope.
Without my sea
I sigh
with the breeze.
I had to leave out all my rambling about the antagonistic relationship
and the support of the sea. I had to look for the smallest bit of the
things I thought that could stand alone. I had to do it that way in
order to stay within the limits of form. But the result leaves room for
the reader to put in her feelings and memories and ideas. And that is
what poetry is all about. Poetry is a marriage of the very heart of what
you have to say with the life and experience of the reader. A wonderful
poem can do something different to every reader and form can help you
achieve that because form will make you look deeper about what you have
to say.
So, as the columns pop up each month – I plan to try out some new forms.
I hope you will too.
This page last updated on 01 September 2008
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