Life &Poetry Entropy | 04 May 2008
Fire and Blood of Poetry
Wish to share a captivating and poignant piece by Wendy Steginsky from Wild River Review.
KEEPING THE FIRE ALIVE…
Mediocribus esse poetis
non homines, non di, non concessere columnae.
“Neither men, nor gods, nor booksellers allow
poets to be mediocre.”
So declared Horace in his Ars Poetica. Keeping this charge from one of the fathers of poetry in mind, how do we breathe life and fire into our work to make it shine brighter, sing more sweetly, and move with greater rhythm? How do we keep our work vital, energetic, and original? How do we write poems that shimmer and dance seductively?
We can begin by deciding to live more fully from our hearts. To live from our hearts is to live from our centers, where our true life is, the home of our real voice, and the source of our fire. If we commit fully to be in the experience of living it will be a commitment to our art, connecting us more deeply to the people and world around us. This passion in us will, in turn, emerge organically in our work. Mary Oliver who possesses a burning ardor for living and for the natural world infuses her poetry with this intense passion:
Peonies
This morning the green fists of the peonies are getting ready
to break my heart
as the sun rises,
as the sun strokes them with his old, buttery fingers
and they open —
pools of lace…
and all day
under the shifty wind,
as in a dance to the great wedding,
the flowers bend their bright bodies…
Do you love this world?
Do you cherish your humble and silky life?
Do you adore the green grass, with its terror beneath?
— Mary Oliver
Oliver, wholly enchanted by the wonder and beauty around her, creates a kind of magic in her poem that allows us to rediscover the world. She looks at nature with such freshness and a sense of awe that we almost feel innocent again. The “Terror beneath” however, is a sharp reminder of the ever-present paradox in life—that life’s fragility is tied tremulously to its beauty.
As poets we have to dare to be original, to be innovative. Being too immersed in the culture will make our work conformist. So we need to step back, take a long, hard look at the way we are in the world, and pay respect to our individuality. From that place we may be able to write something surprising.
Incorporating the element of surprise into our poems can have a powerful effect on our readers. The following poem proceeds quietly with great clarity, simplicity, and seeming predictability . . .
©-by Wendy Fulton Steginsky