[New-Poetry] subject matters

[Skip Fox]

Could you have a poem without a subject? Seems
impossible. Even a random list of words is
about a randomization, the arbitrary, the 
projective/creative/pattern-making abilities 
of the reader, or whatever. 

Not to be silly, but if someone writes a bland poem
about his or her religion, is not the poem about their
feelings, fears, desires, will to believe, etc.
(depending on the poem)?

That's an extreme, but can't we wonder if the poet
is in the best position to _know_ (in the way we
we seem to be assuming that knowing might mean) what
the poem means? That is, do we expect him or her to be
able to know the poem's subject in an articulate,
paraphrasable, and accurate manner?

I would answer that by noting the question is too
binary: either/or. I have work that I can parse its
subject and meaning down to a surprising registration.
I'm sure most of you have the same. Other poems resist 
my knowing. Others hover in between, and sometimes I 
think I know, but later find out differently.

skip


"Fiction Is Foreplay"
(sticker du jour)

-----Original Message-----
From: new-poetry-bounces at wiz.cath.vt.edu
[mailto:new-poetry-bounces at wiz.cath.vt.edu] On Behalf Of James Cervantes
Sent: Thursday, September 06, 2007 8:54 AM
To: NewPoetry: Contemporary Poetry News &amp,Views
Subject: Re: [New-Poetry] subject matters

Same goes for e-mails, huh.

- Jim

On 9/6/07, Halvard Johnson <halvard at earthlink.net> wrote:
> The notion that poems must have subjects is equally silly.
>
> Hal
>
>
> "What do I know of man's destiny? I could
>  tell you more about radishes."
>               --Samuel Beckett
>
> Halvard Johnson
> ================
> halvard at earthlink.net
> http://home.earthlink.net/~halvard/index.html
> http://entropyandme.blogspot.com
> http://imageswithoutwords.blogspot.comhttp://www.hamiltonstone.org
> http://home.earthlink.net/~halvard/vidalocabooks.html
>
>
> On Sep 6, 2007, at 8:52 AM, JforJames at aol.com wrote:
>
>
> In a message dated 9/6/2007 8:39:26 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
> jeff.newberry at gmail.com writes:
>
>
> I suppose I just bristle at the dismissive attitude some (not all) critics
&
> poets have toward the subject matter of a poem.
>
>
> re that point...I post this to my blog last month:
>
> One of T.S. Eliot's sillier notions was that the poem's content was little
> more than a bit of meat that a burglar carries with him to distract the
> house dog while he steals away with the valuables. My mind-keep is guarded
> by a beast that could tear the three heads off Cerberus. So that
> poet-burglar better be dragging the carcass of a water buffalo.
>
> Finnegan
> http://ursprache.blogspot.com/
>
>
>
>
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