Perhaps I’m writing this because I’ve been one of the lurkers on the edge of
this voice discussion - and I don’t know if I know how to use the word
voice.

Voice seems a simple word that gets really complex when it’s used because it
sometimes sounds similar to the paperback self-analysis-therapy-language
about finding one’s true self by following a particular philosophy or
psychological construct. (I’m not knocking the books! I’m just trying to
point out that they may not help a poet appreciate, or find a useful
language to describe, a poet’s voice). The search for a distinct voice (and
style) can seem so essential and intense that some may feel excluded
(because they, and I, don’t see always see writing poems in those terms).
I’m also not happy to simplify the discussion down to the point that we
chose particular words – because poems aren’t just words, they’re
grammatical constructs, and spaces and shapes, and goodness knows what else!
And, if the voice has to be heard in a poem, it sort of needs all of them.

I recognise, because of what I see when I look at my poems as well as when I
read them or hear them, that I’ve written in different voices when I’ve
lived in different places, met and worked alongside different poets, and
written about different things. In each place I’ve eventually been told I
have my own voice, which is distinct and recognisable as mine (But I’ve also
been told I write like so-an-so, which can sometimes surprise me, so I’ve
probably scurried home and started to read who I’m said to be like!). And
I’ve also had people I’ve kept in touch with from previous places
complaining because my voice has changed and they don’t recognise, or like,
what’s now going on!

I’m not worried about using different voices. Even though I recognise those
poets like Dylan Thomas, and Frank O’Hara, had distinctive immediately
recognisable voices (and I sense there are links between their earlier and
later poems) I also recognise that James Wright’s and RS Thomas’s voices
(and styles) changed suddenly and never returned. I also like reading John
Berryman’s poetry, where he writes with a successive variety of voices. So I
feel at ease with what’s going on with me. I feel as if I need to experiment
and listen to what others are saying and wait until enough of my poems begin
to show links between each other before I feel happy with what I’m now
doing. Then I’ll feel as if I’m getting into a new voice. At the moment,
living in yet another place, I feel as if I need to develop yet another
voice. (Because my last voice doesn’t work here!)

I also like (which surprises me) TS Eliot’s distinctions between a poet’s
different voices (perhaps the only thing he ever said that I like!). He
writes about 3 different voices: the poet talking to himself (or herself),
the poet addressing an audience (mega-big or as small as one), and the poet
inventing a character who speaks. I think everything’s more complex than
that, though, these days. But I think he gives me permission to try other
voices (maybe 1st, 2nd, 3rd person, maybe louder, maybe softer, maybe
assertive, maybe reflective) and so extend my voice’s range (so, I’m
grudgingly grateful to him for that!). And I think post-modernity is raising
lots of questions about self-identity – and I sense our culture is,
therefore, contributing to how we can use our poetry voices.

Or am I now no longer talking about voice?

Maybe not.

Or maybe I still am if it’s other people who recognise and get to know my
poetry voice... (I mean I recognise that I find it hard to recognise my own
speaking voice rattling away on other people’s ansaphones etc! I don’t know
how my speaking voice sounds! But they know what I sound like!) So, maybe I
don’t want to know how to analyse my poetry voice, I just want to get to a
stage, once again, where I’m happy when I’m writing, when I’m writing a lot,
when I feel at ease with the words I’m using, and what comes after the last
line’s writ (and re-writ) feels as if it’s fresh and working OK.

Bob


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