Close Your Eyes

Charles Simic is one of my favorite authors.
Here, in the following article from the blog site of The New York Review of Books, Simic discusses current notions of poetry.

At one point early in the essay he states: "As any poet can tell you, one often sees better with eyes closed than with eyes wide open." A statement which jarred me slightly. Over the last few weeks, due to the on-going habitual haiku project, I seem to have fallen into a sense of reporting a scene, detailing an accurate moment in seventeen syllables— rather than developing an emotional abstraction or reaction to a personal event. As if the event is more important than my reaction. Which is not the case in my writing style. Sometimes using personal coded symbols and abstractions of reality help embellish a poem, forcing the work closer to its lyrical roots.

A resolution to follow within my newest poems.
A new motto to carry in my pockets:

close your eyes while writing.

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Where Is Poetry Going? by Charles Simic | NYRBlog | The New York Review of Books