Dear Mark,
Yes, I think so too. I've always felt that nothing is wasted in poetry, the
state of things will out as long as we write as well as we can. Although
Judith Wright stopped writing poetry at some stage to devote herself to
political activism about conservation and Aboriginal welfare.. it's
difficult.
John Forbes said to me once, when he was my tutor, that one should 'look
out, not in' when writing poems and that the truth will sort itself out. I
still think about that comment.
Cheers,
Cassie
On Tue, 11 Jul 2000 23:05:38 -0700, [log in to unmask] wrote:
> Geraldine: You've just very eloquently defined one of the fracture lines
in
> contemporary poetry--I happen to be on the same side of the fracture. But
> I'm not sure that this is a white middle class luxury--I think to do
> otherwise is a luxury, and a Third World poet need not have a different
> agenda. My faith is that in focusing on the moment of the poem we express
> all of our concerns--the world as we can know it--the stories that really
> need to be told get told, but from the inside out, under pressure of
> present necessity.
>
>
> >Having said all that, I would like to add that there are many poetries
> >available to us as readers, offering a range of experiences and it's
> >probably unfair to compare work coming out of vastly different
historical
> >conditions, but, at the risk of being controversial, might it not be
true
> >that poetry which simply conveys a prior experience, however moving that
> >experience might be, is not really adding much to poetry? It may well
> >contribute to our knowledge of the world, I'd be the first to argue
there
> >are many stories still to be told, and even stories which have been told
but
> >need to be re-told, but I don't see poetry's first role as telling
stories
> >or expressing emotion. And now I'm speaking as what I am. White middle
> >class. No point in apologising for that. I have a different agenda to
that
> >of a Third World citizen (male or female) and vice versa.
> >
> >Geraldine
> >________________________________________________________________________
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> >
> >
>
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