[New-Poetry] “What is your work about?”

[Jason Quackenbush]

I don't find that question particularly difficult. Every poem i've ever 
written has some sort of subject, and that's what that poem is about. to 
ask what the body of my poetry is about, which i take it is the supposed 
conundrum is here, is a meaningless question. a body of work, at least 
my body of work, isn't the kind of object that can be sensibly 
predicated by the verb "to mean." Maybe somebody else's, like Henry 
Darger for example, or possibly Anais Nin, could be said to have a body 
that's about some particular thing, but i rather think that's a 
limitation or a flaw in their body of work, rather than an 
accomplishment of some sort.


JforJames at aol.com wrote:
>
> http://www.gtweekly.com/10-25-07-/something-like-a-poem-4
> Something Like a Poem  | Print |   E-mail 
> Written by Dan Gerber    
> Wednesday, 24 October 2007 
>
> The most common and certainly the most difficult question I might be 
> asked by a stranger on an airplane is, “What is your work about?” It’s 
> a conundrum for any artist. And I suspect the one single quality that 
> may peg one as an artist—as opposed to, say, a craftsman—may be the 
> artist’s inability to form a satisfactory answer.
>
> I could say it’s about the process of discovering what it’s about. And 
> that would be honest. I could quote William Faulkner and say, “it’s 
> about the human heart in conflict with itself.” And that would be 
> honest too.
>
> What my poems are about is
>
>
>
>
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