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Brian Strand

(Click for Poet Info...)

ENGLISH OPEN FORM https://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/open_a_1727822 POET https://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/poetry_is_a_recited_art_1716883

https://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/an_emperical_poetry_view_1691678

+ Creator of the footle & hiku (definition -as below)

*FOOTLE *footle(singular) is a two line lines,2 syllable verse with an integral title-Light Poetic verse form,witty,pertinent,topical etc (technically a trochaic monometer and not necessarily in rhyme)it was inspired by the famous FLEAS Adam/had'em.

HIKU a tristich HAIKU is a centuries old Japanese traditional phonetical & cultural poetic form

whereas HIKU is a relatively recent reference to the 75year old established haiku in English. Hiku being an imagist tristich like its elder cousin,without a title,and with a similar economy of words ,inherently enigmatic & with a caesura or an ellipsis and surprise ending. A similar sense of pause ,the aesthetic insight flowing from perception gained from 'one breath length ' composition that flowed from the Japanesese 17 onji sound inherent in the Japaneses haiku. Without 'invented' syllabic( 5-7-5 ) line restrictions of the 'haiku in english 'is the 'free verse' version of the '5:7:5 haiku in English'. similar but different ,a present tense poetic ,the - hiku is the written or recited equivalent to arts 'gestural spontaneous happening' . Creativity the key in a verse freed from strict syllabic constraint within its triplicity of format(tristich)& yet inherently enigmatic & often with a caesura and surprise ending( VERSUM )to give a 'turning' to the line. The flexible hiku maybe a horizontal single* line,(often broken line at the caesura),a vertical line(usually a painting(haiga) ,a couplet** or a tristich* with shape-like variations.

OPEN VERSE using spaces&breaks/no grammatical symbols /relying on 'the one breath limitation'/thus intuitive cadence permits the 'reader' (reciter)to respond in an interpretative-interplay unique** to the ' happening moment'

4 POETIC TENETS - https://creativepoetics.blogspot.com/

+Gestural abstraction- my art style

https://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/just_saying_my_art_an_emperical_view_1686489

more gestural art of mine here https://gesturalart.blogspot.com/

sculptured poetic fusion https://sculptureguide.blogspot.com/ o

Coloured hand print

2 Crushed paper presse

3 Sculpture paper mache (front)

4 Coloured cut-outs

5 String installation

6 Sculpture paper mache (back)

7 Dada style safety pins

8 Hanging found object trouve

And my Christan verse @

https://mychristianverse.blogspot.com/

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ARE POEMS WINDOWS ON THE WORLD

Blog Posted by Brian Strand: 4/30/2017 10:29:00 AM

In the US poet, Barbara Crooker's book 'Gold' ,(which I purchased after a recent Cyndi pubnight discussion)DS Martin, the Poiema series editor thereof, (and published by Cascade Books) ,in a foreword thereto suggests...

"Poems are windows into worlds.....and that poetry is a partnership between poet and reader"

To what worlds are your poems a window ?

Do you take the reader into your interests , beliefs, hobbies, happenings etc ?

Do you feel a connect(or partnership as Martin puts it) with the reader of your poetry?

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Cyndi
Macmillan

Date: 5/4/2017 11:47:00 PM

Julia: for someone who isn't engaging me in conversation, you keep engaging me in conversation. I am a poet. I'm comfortable saying so. I am not good enough to be compared to Auden, but when the editor of a journal that receives over 2,500 submissions and publishes only 1% actually selects all three of the poems in my package for one issue, I feel confident enough to at least say, YES, I am a poet. When a poet laureate says he wants to see more of my poetry, I feel comfortable enough to say, YES. I am a poet. I'm not writing this to show off or because I'm (oh what is it that haters have said?) full of myself? I write this because I won't be put down any longer. I'm a developing poet, still finding my voice, still honing skills. I'm asserting myself here and staying within the parameters of politeness, because this is Brian's blog and I respect him. Otherwise...

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 5/6/2017 10:51:00 PM

@Ruben... so much to say, but I won't, except this: always be patient with the fox who had to chew off its own foot to escape a trap that was brutal. I have been the foot, the trap and the fox in my life. I try--whenever I can--to be patient with all three

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 5/5/2017 2:40:00 PM

Chris, what are your views on the new formalists? If you have one, drop by my pub blog and I'll refocus my energy in a more positive way...

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 5/5/2017 2:30:00 PM

I am really not certain why I insisted. We all have our moments when instead of slapping the hand away, we could about face and leave the room. Sometimes a good "BITE ME" just seems to satisfy. So does giving the bird, but that is hard to do in this format.

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 5/5/2017 10:26:00 AM

Hello, Jan :D the year's young. I hope somebody says something with more merit than my snip-snap. I wish somebody ELSE would post something about the famine, really REACH Soupers. To me? I'd give that comment a thousand gold stars if it motivated charity...

Jan Allison
Date: 5/5/2017 6:10:00 AM

Bravo! Blog comment of the year Cyndi!!! :-) hugs jan xx

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 5/4/2017 11:54:00 PM

My advice is that you write a blog, allow other people to disagree with you on YOUR blog and THEN return here. For someone who keeps all comments off HER pages, you are certainly offering up quite a bit of opinion here. It's rather ironic.

Julia
Ward

Date: 5/4/2017 2:47:00 PM

Re. the post at 7:27 PM on 5/3, first we were readers and then we liked to write poetry is a far better way to put it than "poets". Let's leave that terminology for poets like Auden, Longfellow and Shakespeare.

Cyndi
Macmillan

Date: 5/3/2017 7:27:00 PM

I was thinking today of other poets I've read and how their windows directly influenced me, how their VULNERABILITY, openness, raw honesty and passion outlooks inspired me to push harder, reach deeper... I am sure I'm not alone in this regard. First we were readers, then we were poets. I have felt a connection to OTHER poets long before I shared a poem with a single reader. Emily Dickenson, I think I connected to her first... Gary Snyder, his handshake through pages... Anyhoo Goodnight chums.

Julia Ward
Date: 5/4/2017 2:41:00 PM

Cyndi - Goodnight and goodbye. Your posts to me were unfriendly so you will not engage with me again.

Doug
Vinson

Date: 5/2/2017 1:21:00 AM

The human condition, aging, time, a love of the seasons and the heavens, and the pain that is always out there. I've had a good life, and have a great wife and family, yet to think of the suffering in many lives on earth, the unfairness - how sensitive should we be to all the pain that is out there? If we are writing to show to others, then we should be writing with the reader in mind, reading all the while in the reader's place. It is our active language, our act of language, reaching to the reader, even if intensely personal, if confessional, self-revelatory, etc., and it is straight to the reader, right at them, to surround them, remind them, involve them, make them feel.

Doug Vinson
Date: 5/4/2017 4:00:00 PM

Julia, 3:52 p.m. - no matter how much emotion, thought, etc., goes on in the reader's mind when or after reading a poem, it still does not really seem like a "dialogue" to me; it's only been writer to reader. Dialogue needs more back-and-forth. My opinion.

Doug Vinson
Date: 5/4/2017 3:58:00 PM

Julia, that's just not true. Sometimes, confessionals do matter. It's not "widening the field" - I mentioned writing that's confessional, self-revelatory, etc., right above, in the paragraph that begins this thread.

Julia Ward
Date: 5/4/2017 3:56:00 PM

I don't know what you mean at 3:52 PM, Doug.

Doug Vinson
Date: 5/4/2017 3:56:00 PM

Cyndi, I have almost no feeling about who has influenced me. I'm such a baby at all this stuff. I have been affected when reading James Joyce and Cormac McCarthy, but I think I'd need many more cycles of reading/writing before I could really get to "influenced."

Julia Ward
Date: 5/4/2017 3:53:00 PM

Confessionals do not matter on Poetry Soup, Doug. You keep widening the field so that in the end the PS focus is lost.

Doug Vinson
Date: 5/4/2017 3:52:00 PM

"Dialogue" - Julia, my opinion is that it fits best when there's at least a "two-way street" at work. More than just writer to reader.

Doug Vinson
Date: 5/4/2017 3:47:00 PM

There is no single one way about it, Julia - some confessionals may not matter, but others will. "Pretentious" - who knows? That's going to be a judgment call every times, poem by poem and reader by reader.

Julia Ward
Date: 5/4/2017 3:45:00 PM

Doug... Re. dialogue, I am glad you side with me here. Those people who think of it as a 1, 2 count miss the point entirely, don't they? Lol.

Julia Ward
Date: 5/4/2017 3:43:00 PM

Doug - Dryden wanted to influence others and in our present day, poet laureates. It is pretentious for ordinary writers on Poetry Soup to want to do that or to think a confessional matters to others.

Doug Vinson
Date: 5/4/2017 3:39:00 PM

Julia, on "dialogue" - I'm sure many would argue about this, i.e. can a poem constitute a dialogue between writer and reader? I see a basic 1, 2 count - the writer puts down the words, and then whatever happens in the reader's mind takes place. I'm going to agree with you - there needs to be more back-and-forth before it's really a dialogue.

Doug Vinson
Date: 5/4/2017 3:24:00 PM

Julia, reading up through this little mini-thread here... I agree that poetry is from the poet's perspective (even if the subject would be another's feelings, for example). However, sometimes the poet does aim to influence others - that is sometimes a concrete and definite desire. And sometimes, yes, we are in the confessional box.

Julia Ward
Date: 5/4/2017 3:01:00 PM

What you write here applies to conversation, not poetry, Doug. Poetry is an expression of feeling ONLY, not the commencement of dialogue with a reader.

Julia Ward
Date: 5/4/2017 2:40:00 PM

Cyndi - Beliefs when they are a topic for discussion are to do with religion - not the neither here nor there stuff you were putting forward in your post of 11:28 AM of 5/3.

Julia Ward
Date: 5/4/2017 2:36:00 PM

Cyndi - By the way, I do not try to influence the judge's decision when I do a contest, so you were wrong there, and I don't know why you wrote your post of 11:31 AM of 5/3. It is, after all, stating the obvious.

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 5/4/2017 11:48:00 AM

@ Doug. Who has influenced your writing? I think the topic would make a great blog, as well. I'm feeling out my own "voice," but I'm grateful to so many 'mentors' I've never met, only read (in some cases dozens of times.)

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 5/4/2017 11:43:00 AM

Yeah. I got that, Julia. Thank you.

Julia Ward
Date: 5/4/2017 10:11:00 AM

Cyndi - Your 11:31 AM of 5/3/2017 question is not answered for the reason contained in my post of 5/3/2017 at 2:11 PM.

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 5/3/2017 2:17:00 PM

One definition of influenced: the power or capacity of causing an effect in indirect or intangible ways. This is why writers or musicians are asked who they've been "influenced" by (or inspired by) I've been influenced by many great poets. Influence doesn't need to be intentional or a power-play move. It's about art reaching out, finding a 'kindred soul.'

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 5/3/2017 11:36:00 AM

Last question for Julia. You write a lot of poems for contests. I can see you post if the poem won. So, you liked that you won the contest. Therefore, you TRY to win the contest. You try to influence the judge's decision -- that the judge select your poem as a winner.

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 5/3/2017 11:31:00 AM

Julia, I agree with this point: each poet crafts his poem from their own perspective, for their own reasons, for their own purposes and with their own intents towards connecting to the reader (or not.) YOU, as a poet cannot fully comprehend the mindset of any OTHER poet. Neither can I or any poet. Each poet has an individual approach to the art. Can we agree on this point?

Julia Ward
Date: 5/3/2017 7:06:00 AM

Doug, When we write poems, we are not in a confessional box. We write from our own perspective. If someone does have a sympathetic vibe after the poem's publication, good for him, but it is not going through our minds when we write the poem that our poem HAS to achieve this.

Julia Ward
Date: 5/3/2017 7:02:00 AM

Doug - You say some of your poems come about because of a release of feelings, in which case they can ONLY be from your perspective. We are all different in the way we view things.

Julia Ward
Date: 5/3/2017 7:00:00 AM

Cyndi - I write poems a certain way because that's how *I* see the subject in hand at that given moment. I am not trying to influence people.

Doug Vinson
Date: 5/2/2017 6:38:00 PM

Also - Julia, I agree with Cyndi on your 'Evil in the East' poem. I like it, and it's going to make people feel. Lots of bad stuff on earth, but the 'killing fields' of the Khmer Rouge is a stand-out example.

Doug Vinson
Date: 5/2/2017 6:33:00 PM

Julia, I didn't say I was hoping to influence others, as with journalism. Some of my poetry is indeed a release of feelings, as you mention, but not just from my perspective. I daresay there is no rational argument to be made to the contrary, no matter what.

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 5/2/2017 5:55:00 PM

"Evil in the East" by Julia Ward is a poem that to quote Doug Vinson, "is straight to the reader, right at them, to surround them, remind them, involve them, make them feel." And yes, Julia, that poem of yours influences others in a GOOD way. It's what poetry IS! It moves us.

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 5/2/2017 5:24:00 PM

Julia, most readers expect a poem to affect them, leave them either calmed or ruffled, touched or even revolted. Readers do want to FEEL something when they read something. It's about the connection. Question: Why do you post your work on Soup?

Julia Ward
Date: 5/2/2017 10:36:00 AM

Doug - Your poetry is a release of feelings *as seen from your perspective*. It cannot purport to be a type of journalism in which you hope to influence others.

Cyndi
Macmillan

Date: 5/1/2017 3:51:00 PM

Brian, I've posted a blog which was inspired by a discussion found on yours! You may find it interesting, as would some of the other poets. I think it's wonderful how your blogs and my blogs spark new ones. I think of it as a means to further conversations -- especially ones that wonderfully meander from the original conversation. I worked on my novel today and will not be spending a great deal of time on Soup for several weeks. But I've so enjoyed these poetry discussions and have missed this type of camaraderie. Thanks for opportunity to talk 'shop!' Awesome.

Brian Strand
Date: 5/1/2017 5:36:00 PM

Cyndi this is just as it would be if we met face to face in weekly night school workshop.We went to music workshops at night school each week in the 80's ,not only was it informative but the class inspired each in conversation etc which is just what can happen here, as recent blogs have shown.Participation is what fellowship is really about.

Cyndi
Macmillan

Date: 5/1/2017 2:57:00 PM

Hmm....

Joanna
Daniel

Date: 5/1/2017 8:15:00 AM

Of course they are, Brian - a window for the readers into the poet's mind/ thoughts/ feelings and the poet's window through which he/she views the world outside (reflected in their writings)

Doug Vinson
Date: 5/2/2017 1:23:00 AM

Good comments, Jo. : ) One thing I like about PoetrySoup is the presence of many African poets - a world very new and different to me.

Lin Lane
Date: 5/1/2017 2:18:00 PM

You're correct in your thinking, Jo, snd it seems to be the consensus of most everyone on Brian's blog. A poet cannot write without a concept, which reflects his thoughts, emotions, desires, both past and present. Perhaps even future perceptions. Personally, many of my poems have been written from the foundation of my memories, good and bad. A reader will see who I am through my window, and if there's something I don't wish him to see, I simply draw the curtain over the most private scenes.

Brian Strand
Date: 5/1/2017 11:00:00 AM

Yes Barbara's editor was indeed correct and Poetry Soup poems clearly reflect that comment

Brian
Strand

Date: 5/1/2017 12:59:00 AM

PS recognise these 'windows' as it is impossible to post a poem here without tickng a category into which the poet considers their poem falls

Julia Ward
Date: 5/1/2017 9:20:00 AM

The categories are merely descriptive, nothing more.

Brian
Strand

Date: 5/1/2017 12:55:00 AM

As a long time contest sponsor who does not specify a theme I am truly amazed at the variety of worlds on which 'windows' are opened.It is a major factor of why I so do.

Doug Vinson
Date: 5/4/2017 3:10:00 PM

Julia, indeed - let us say it's only the poet's beliefs. Brian's blog question here is, "Are poems windows on the world?" Have to say 'yes,' here - some poems definitely are windows on the poet's beliefs, on that part of the world.

Brian
Strand

Date: 5/1/2017 12:44:00 AM

As Agnes comments below nature is one of the windows of her world,which she opens by her poetry to show others her perspective thereon.If our hobbies,interests ,beliefs etc are not just superficial and we also have a poetic gifting then we will share our window thereon in verse just as we might do in other ways eg talking,writing books,joining focus groups etc.

Doug Vinson
Date: 5/4/2017 3:44:00 PM

Julia, on beliefs, I'd just say that the strength of them can and does vary widely. I'd also say that the strength of them really doesn't matter here - they can be shared in poems regardless. "Superficial" - not trying to be disparaging of beliefs, there, just going with the definitions of the word.

Julia Ward
Date: 5/4/2017 10:06:00 AM

Cyndi - See my post of 5/3/2017 at 2:11 PM.

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 5/3/2017 11:28:00 AM

Seriously? Julia? You just want to argue semantics? www.thesaurus.com/browse/belief A belief can mean many things: an idea, a guess, it can even mean a presumption. It does not need to be strong, but it can be. It can mean a simple judgement call.

Julia Ward
Date: 5/3/2017 7:33:00 AM

Secondly @ Brian - When we write poems, we are not considering other people's beliefs, so I don't know why you put that.

Julia Ward
Date: 5/3/2017 7:31:00 AM

In the context I was replying to - Brian's communication, it was ONLY the poet's beliefs we were talking about. Beliefs are strongly held otherwise they are called opinions.

Doug Vinson
Date: 5/2/2017 6:31:00 PM

"Beliefs cannot be put in that superficial category to the person who holds them." Julia, perhaps - depends on what we are talking about. Could be very deeply-held things, as I mentioned previously, or could be an opinion about Beavis & Butthead, as Cyndi said. There really will often be a difference. Also, it's not just the writer's opinion that matters - there is the reader to consider.

Julia Ward
Date: 5/2/2017 8:13:00 AM

Doug and Cyndi. Please keep your answers in the context of what I was replying to. Brian referred to hobbies and interests in the first place. These could very well be superficial. Beliefs cannot be put in that superficial category to the person who holds them.

Doug Vinson
Date: 5/2/2017 1:59:00 AM

"If our ..beliefs are not just superficial.." Is there not a necessary component of superficiality to beliefs? Not that they have to be "shallow" as they may be deeply-held, but some of the definitions of "superficial" are "apparent rather than real," and "appearing to be true or real only until examined more closely." --Multiplied in significance by the difference between author and reader.

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 5/1/2017 5:22:00 PM

I believe that the show Beavis and Butthead wasn't so great. Just a belief, but some may believe otherwise. So, some beliefs are, in fact, superficial in the sense they are of little value to anyone. They are just judgement calls...

Julia Ward
Date: 5/1/2017 9:41:00 AM

Beliefs can never be superficial.

Agnes
Krampe

Date: 4/30/2017 6:27:00 PM

I write mostly about my experiences with nature, and I want to make the reader see what I see, and want to share what feelings and thoughts that brings up in me. I hope that a reader can connect and feel the feeling from my words, or envision the natural experience. When I write about personal feelings, it is not because I think a reader is interested in my personal life, but because I think some experiences are the experiences of others, too. A person may think "yes, this is exactly what it feels like". I have been that person, and I found it helpful and comforting to read that others have gone through the same thing before me.

Julia Ward
Date: 5/3/2017 2:11:00 PM

Cyndi - You wrote - "Read the entire blog. All of it. Every word". This is not the way to write to people. Goodbye. Any further notes above from you are going to be ignored.

Julia Ward
Date: 5/3/2017 2:08:00 PM

"I was not saying my feelings were hurt". This sentence shows that you are not reading what I put at 7:36 A.M. today, and please don't play amateur psychologist with people on this site. It's reprehensible.

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 5/3/2017 11:16:00 AM

I was not saying my feelings were hurt, Julia. I was saying you are showing traits indicative of someone who has FACED oppression or over-control.

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 5/3/2017 11:11:00 AM

Julia. Read the entire blog. All of it. Every word. Now, can you find anything said by anyone other than yourself that you actually agree with? Most, if not everyone, can find one minute point to agree with. However, the only reason you comment on blogs IS to disagree.

Julia Ward
Date: 5/3/2017 7:36:00 AM

Cyndi - I don't know what you are talking about, People disagreeing with you have not been hurt in any way. They just hold a different point of view from you.

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 5/2/2017 5:27:00 PM

Julia, if you continue this line of argument, I will show you EXACTLY how people can read between the lines. Whoever hurt you so badly? They are not on this blog.

Julia Ward
Date: 5/2/2017 3:19:00 AM

Jan, Agnes at least knows (from me) that there isn't all round agreement with her view.

Jan Allison
Date: 5/1/2017 12:29:00 PM

Bravo Agnes! Very well said and on a personal level I cannot agree with you more!:-) hugs Jan xx

Agnes Krampe
Date: 5/1/2017 11:21:00 AM

Of course not, and it would be foolish to view it as such. But people find comfort or enjoyment in seeing others have shared experiences - bad and good ones, and seeing it put into words that speak to them. I know it works like this for me, and for many readers of poetry. Maybe it does not fulfill this role for you, and that is perfectly fine, too - we don't all have to feel the same way.

Julia Ward
Date: 5/1/2017 8:20:00 AM

Poetry tends to exaggerate, so it can't be a substitute for a Self-Help book.

Brian Strand
Date: 5/1/2017 12:50:00 AM

Yes,Cyndi this is part of our humanity which I think this why Crooker's Gold collection was chosen for this Poiema series.

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 4/30/2017 7:47:00 PM

I agree with Andrea. You said this brilliantly. The world is a much less lonely place when we discover a kindred soul in a poet who speaks "our language."

Andrea Dietrich
Date: 4/30/2017 6:34:00 PM

Love the way you said this. My thoughts too.

Brian
Strand

Date: 4/30/2017 3:23:00 PM

I can understand that a poem is something that has to be said ,just for its self(see my earlier blog 'poetry as a diary) but the act of publication indicates a desire to make a connection with another

Andrea Dietrich
Date: 4/30/2017 6:36:00 PM

yes, a publisher once told me not to try to publish with very personal poetry . it has to have a connection with humanity. But as Agnes said, some personal poetry also has connection to others. An example, an anthology of pets. I submitted poems on my pet cats and they all appeared in this nice book sold by a pet adoption agency.

Andrea
Dietrich

Date: 4/30/2017 2:25:00 PM

Yes, of course! But it can be general and/or informational as well, and it can be both serious or humorous whether fictional or based on real life. Whatever one wants it to be. I like to do all the different ways!

Brian Strand
Date: 5/1/2017 12:35:00 AM

Yes Andrea, your contest placings reflect this

Andrea Dietrich
Date: 4/30/2017 6:34:00 PM

Hope that is a compliment . I love being eclectic!

Brian Strand
Date: 4/30/2017 3:17:00 PM

Yes Andrea ,I have noticed your versatility!

Cyndi
Macmillan

Date: 4/30/2017 11:45:00 AM

YES. To all the questions. My window view changes, constantly. I have shown views of Darfur, and the horrific things done to annihilate a culture. I have shown a view of the black plague. I have shown a personal view of miscarriage and received a thank you from another person who connected to my experience and she said it helped to know she was not alone. I feel a responsibility to readers to create something that is well-structured, exact in language which they can also FEEL (,like your Crisis poem, Brian. It has that powerful balance.) When I write, I feel that the reader is WITH me. How can I make it more interesting for him or her? I do my best to ensure my line cuts add something FOR THE READER... by cutting between certain words, you can build a teeny tiny rollercoaster and they think they are turning left, but suddenly you sharply veer and you turn them in a loop de loop. If done well, if done just right, the reader comes off the "poetry ride" with a sense that they've gone somewhere different and would so like to return. I know this because I often experience it when I READ poetry. I KNOW that the poet has honed that poem for me, for you, for every reader that follows us. The window can turn inwards and look inside and it can look upon a thousand other faces. Portrait poems interest me to the point that once I reach professional status, my grant proposal will be about poetry as literary photography-- moments, lives, epiphanies, fragments ... all caught with words. A snapshot in every way. A view from a window... and a viewfinder is very similar. Excellent blog, Brian. I hope you have a good Sunday. Cheers, Cyndi

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 5/1/2017 4:03:00 PM

I am writing fiction (an adult novel and a series for childen) in order to pay for the luxury of writing a poetry book! Still, here in Canada, a grant can exceed $20,000 (for an established poet like Molly Peacock.) Should I be awarded a grant, it could be in the $2000 - $5000 range.

Brian Strand
Date: 5/1/2017 5:18:00 AM

You will get there Cyndi, but don't expect a fortune!, poetry is rarely a hot property!

Brian Strand
Date: 4/30/2017 11:55:00 AM

Yes Cyndi, I think it is inevitable that some are indeed windows on our lives.

Julia
Ward

Date: 4/30/2017 11:05:00 AM

No. One shouldn't presume that one's life is fascinating to strangers and want to divulge it.

Doug Vinson
Date: 5/4/2017 4:07:00 PM

Either way, it still applies to PS. PS does get some protest poems. And it certainly gets poems that reveal things about the poet and their life.

Julia Ward
Date: 5/4/2017 3:49:00 PM

You are widening the field here. Let's just keep it to work likely to appear on PS. Protest poems and songs do not.

Julia Ward
Date: 5/4/2017 3:19:00 PM

Doug, The phrase "interest generated" doesn't really fit the context. We don't write for interest generated, but write what interests us.

Julia Ward
Date: 5/3/2017 7:44:00 AM

At 7:43 AM today, the reply is for Doug.

Julia Ward
Date: 5/3/2017 7:43:00 AM

I don't agree with your last sentence (at 6:25 PM yesterday). How one writes - the quality - is the interest marker.

Julia Ward
Date: 5/3/2017 7:41:00 AM

Cyndi - In the "Noise" poem I was creating a poem for a contest. It was entirely fictitious or not. You don't know which from reading my poem.

Julia Ward
Date: 5/3/2017 7:39:00 AM

Cyndi - Of course I know that some of my character can be discerned in my writing. That's is not the reason I write, though. It's not the reason most people write, either.

Julia Ward
Date: 5/2/2017 10:30:00 AM

Doug - When I said the "presume" statement, that doesn't mean there is any intention of my going ahead and telling people my life in poetic language.

Julia Ward
Date: 5/2/2017 10:27:00 AM

Cyndi, I do not doubt that we reveal ourselves unwittingly through poetry. I have a personal viewpoint that my own life is not to be treated to a poetic contemplation that I want to share with outsiders.

Doug Vinson
Date: 5/2/2017 1:25:00 AM

Julia, I agree that one should not so presume. Thus, the task of the writer is to *make it* interesting.

Julia Ward
Date: 5/1/2017 7:33:00 AM

Agnes, Poetry is not autobiography dependent, so it is not true that "almost all poetry divulges something of the author's life".

Julia Ward
Date: 5/1/2017 3:13:00 AM

Thank you for your views on this, Keith.

Julia Ward
Date: 5/1/2017 3:11:00 AM

To Agnes - Please read my comment more carefully. I referred to the poems that divulge one's life, not poetry other than about that private sphere.

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ARE POEMS WINDOWS ON THE WORLD

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