This is the collaborative journal of W.C. Chambers and J.R. Bowman. Read. Wonder. Reply. Thanks for stopping by.
Sunday, November 20, 2005,7:46 PM
On the Craft of Storytelling: Part II
"Poets utter great and wise things which they do not themselves understand."
--Plato
Let us discuss this for a moment shall we? Poets, you see, are those who mesh thought into a wonderful and vibrant collection of words and because of this I have nothing against the heart of a poet. It is the heart of a poet that makes them so. What disgusts me is when they add things that have absolutely no relevance to what it is they are talking about. For instance, one could be talking about a lost love and in the first line write "Oh love of mine, your fleeting soul has no bounds". Now, I just pulled that line from my ass. Do I know what it means? NO! I don't have a clue but it sounded good to me. However, I could interpret that line to mean "My love which has left me is unable to make a commitment".
Now this is where the problem lies. I could go on and write an entire poem here, but it would not be from my heart because I have never had a problem with a girl who was unable to make a commitment. (My problem with women is that they all very commited, to a husband which is just my luck and a story for some other time) However, this is not to say that if I were to complete the poem it would not be good. Because the poem is not something that I myself have experienced first hand it becomes something secondary, something lacking divine substance.
What may, and in most cases does, insue is that others will percieve a poet as being deeper than he or she really is. This in turn will cause the poet to create one after another of senseless pseudo-emotional filth. Soon the poet will have a following of aspiring poets, writers and songwrites who beleive that no matter what one writes it'll be picked up and published. These poets will form a false sense of hope. There are too many poets who throw words together just because it sounds good and thier poems are just as confusing and vague as thier emotions inside them. Poems, like I said, come from the heart. Anybody who has ever been hurt can write a poem, consquently this too makes them a poet. But to be a poet (a true poet) well, that takes a lifetime of pain and sorrow.
--Plato
Let us discuss this for a moment shall we? Poets, you see, are those who mesh thought into a wonderful and vibrant collection of words and because of this I have nothing against the heart of a poet. It is the heart of a poet that makes them so. What disgusts me is when they add things that have absolutely no relevance to what it is they are talking about. For instance, one could be talking about a lost love and in the first line write "Oh love of mine, your fleeting soul has no bounds". Now, I just pulled that line from my ass. Do I know what it means? NO! I don't have a clue but it sounded good to me. However, I could interpret that line to mean "My love which has left me is unable to make a commitment".
Now this is where the problem lies. I could go on and write an entire poem here, but it would not be from my heart because I have never had a problem with a girl who was unable to make a commitment. (My problem with women is that they all very commited, to a husband which is just my luck and a story for some other time) However, this is not to say that if I were to complete the poem it would not be good. Because the poem is not something that I myself have experienced first hand it becomes something secondary, something lacking divine substance.
What may, and in most cases does, insue is that others will percieve a poet as being deeper than he or she really is. This in turn will cause the poet to create one after another of senseless pseudo-emotional filth. Soon the poet will have a following of aspiring poets, writers and songwrites who beleive that no matter what one writes it'll be picked up and published. These poets will form a false sense of hope. There are too many poets who throw words together just because it sounds good and thier poems are just as confusing and vague as thier emotions inside them. Poems, like I said, come from the heart. Anybody who has ever been hurt can write a poem, consquently this too makes them a poet. But to be a poet (a true poet) well, that takes a lifetime of pain and sorrow.
