On 22/2/05 1:57 AM, "Janet Jackson" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> What if I put on clothes that, to my mind, are a poem (now there's a
> thought!), and go to a poetry workshop and talk about poetry
> and write poetry? One could argue that the other participants
> are getting a fair dose of my poet self, and therefore it is real,
> at least to them.
Hi Janet
I'd call that me a quotidian self. Just for argument's sake. It's a
quotidian self sitting here blathering now, shouting at the dog, which
insists on licking my toes. Aaargh. Too much first thing in the morning.
Whatever that other is who writes poetry is much more inconstant and strange
and private. I can write poems without accessing that self, and quite often
do, for fun, but personally I don't think of them as "real" poems. At the
same time, that other I is not unsympathetic to interruptions, I'm not into
that high and lonely destiny stuff, which was usually claimed by men, and
usually men who had some servant woman or wife tidying up and cooking their
dinner. I wrote a long poem sequence once that was absolutely about
quotidian interruptions. There's no hard and fast border over which you
journey into the "poetic". But, for me at least, there is a difference.
This sounds all very confessional. It's always hard to talk about this
stuff without sounding like a limp-brained romantic, and maybe I am... I
don't believe in muses, for various reasons I've rehearsed here, but I have
always liked Lorca's idea of duende.
Best
A
Alison Croggon
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Editor, Masthead: http://masthead.net.au
Home page: http://alisoncroggon.com
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