Language is equal parts logic and magic.
Poetry is where the dynamics of both things work together to open up significant moments.
Poetry is a complex of semantics and séance.
A new experience can happen with a poem, as profound as the inspiring material. Occasionally, profounder.
Metaphors can create an unusual state of mind in the reader.
A poet can present something almost beyond words in terms of simile, personification, and mixed resonance. The shadow of what is elusive casts a coloration onto the page.
The poet performs a linguistic conjuring. The poet summons the ghosts of words that hide in equivocal regions between time and emotion.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Very interesting thoughts. I've almost given up on trying to describe what I think poetry is ... I still see it as being more about how we can view the world, less about how the world is ...
ReplyDeleteScience and poetry both need imagination ... but science is rigorously focused on what really is, the poet is more concerned with what could be ... I guess. Who knows what I am saying!
Good points, Matt. I think what I was trying to say has, really, less to do with a definition of poetry than with my amazement at language as such. Especially its almost oracular power in certain poems.
ReplyDelete