Andrew Burke wrote:
>Yeah. It is often my practice to write myself into a poem - and later chop
>the first part out, the more conscious part. I may work 'seriously' on this
>bit later. Thanks for your response.
>
>Androo the Gecko
>
>
I wonder if anyone has ever done some sort of study or
theory-construction around this, namely the extent to which the *I* in a
poem can be identified with the author; or more slinkily, whether
particular patterns of language and subject can point right back at the
author, who can therefore be labelled "obsessive." I think it was Alvin
Rothenberg who said writers never free themselves of a subject, it IS an
obsession, but they come back to it under different guises and in
different styles as long as they write. Approach and words may change,
hidden subject never varies.
Imagine someone who is writing about the Columbine killers, Charlie
Manson (totally unexpected), Harry Thaw, and Lynndie England. What a
range. What have they in common? The same stuff that I found in my
waiting-for-the-rejection-slip bookette: homelessness, exile, not being
where you are. No escape for the author into the Lake District or the
Forest of Arden, the more fool moi..
I can't write nature poems. Maybe if someone gives me an exercise. A
bug will eat a leaf....
Ken
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