Doug wrote:
> Okay
>
> I'm more than willing to go along with the idea that poets do come into
> something like a signature style, something readers tend to recognize as
> signing their writing presence. But 'voice' when used for this in that
> sense of 'finding your own voice' does tend to get in the way of perhaps
> the most interesting forms of apprenticeship to language. It seems to have
> a sense of a single. monolithic tone, perhaps? Or it allows the young poet
> to stay too far within her/his own sensibility, given license to refuse to
> learn from others, to read as widely as possible, etc.
I quite agree, Doug. Discussion or a prominence of discussion regarding
'finding your own voice' can be a hinderance. Whenever I heard the phrase
when I was young it was as if an anchor was being slung around my psychic
neck. I can liken the experience to a mother or father's admonishment, "Boy,
when you grow up!" Which leaves the inner voice crying, "Well, yeah, what
about taking me serious here and now?"
Fortunately for me (I guess) I've always had enough of the rebel in me to
read and experiment widely anyway (often to the dissaproval of my poetic
elders but that became a compass, not a hinderance, ultimately; and that a
personal choice).
> I know I'm still learning from other poets, incorporating whatever
> 'lessons' (loaded term here, yes, I know) arrive along with the pleasure
> because I don't want to, can't, stay in one lace (which that singular
> 'voice' seems to imply, at least in many of the cases I have
encountered).
> Which is why, perhaps, I find the term limiting. And seek some other way
to
> discuss that aspect of a poet's signature in her or his writing. And,
> Pessoa, among others, sure plays havoc with that singular usage, anyway...
>
> Doug
I wouldn't say coming into one's own negates continued growth or variety
either. As you note, that is an essential, on-going part of the pleasure of
poetry. You and I know that so why sweat or use the phrase at all? The journ
ey in all of its premutations is what matters.
best
:fp
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Frank Parker
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