I was just think the very same thing when I decided to visit here again. I think, perhaps, there's a strange contradiction - not logical, rather the pull and tug of identity and intimacy, that is involved in both reading and writing poetry, well at least some poetry and poets. It involves a kind of nakedness that can make one jittery (not in the juvenile sense but I don't think it's entirely unrelated). I love Paul Celan who can show the sublime line of beauty in the terror we are afraid to speak about, even to ourselves. There's also the difficulty in that, though usually more succinct than prose, poetry demands much more from the reader. When reading a book, I'm often less concerned to ensure I've wrung all the right meaning out of a sentence or passage, as indeed are some writers in writing. And again, if you're like me, you tend to want to empathies more with the poet than the novelist; there are plenty of novelists I find (perceive to be) obnoxious, but I find that harder to take in poets. With poets, in a sense, you have to invite them into your "house".
Paul Celan is a good example— the Jerome Rothenberg translation of "Death Fugue" resounds with a metaphoric language— which repeats as music lyrics— but contains a strong sense of inner conflict that intensifies with its apparent "senseless" repetition. A surreal nightmare.
Like your closing comment as well. Readers do carry their notions of houses within themselves.
I was just think the very same thing when I decided to visit here again. I think, perhaps, there's a strange contradiction - not logical, rather the pull and tug of identity and intimacy, that is involved in both reading and writing poetry, well at least some poetry and poets. It involves a kind of nakedness that can make one jittery (not in the juvenile sense but I don't think it's entirely unrelated). I love Paul Celan who can show the sublime line of beauty in the terror we are afraid to speak about, even to ourselves. There's also the difficulty in that, though usually more succinct than prose, poetry demands much more from the reader. When reading a book, I'm often less concerned to ensure I've wrung all the right meaning out of a sentence or passage, as indeed are some writers in writing. And again, if you're like me, you tend to want to empathies more with the poet than the novelist; there are plenty of novelists I find (perceive to be) obnoxious, but I find that harder to take in poets. With poets, in a sense, you have to invite them into your "house".
ReplyDeletePaul Celan is a good example— the Jerome Rothenberg translation of "Death Fugue" resounds with a metaphoric language— which repeats as music lyrics— but contains a strong sense of inner conflict that intensifies with its apparent "senseless" repetition. A surreal nightmare.
ReplyDeleteLike your closing comment as well. Readers do carry their notions of houses within themselves.