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English experiential poet of open verse& creator of the FOOTLE (singular form)&EMAGI digital reverse ekphrasis.A regular @PS since 2007 ,with 9500+ poems posted&sponsor of 1260 contests ( Amazon books- (500+) reviews)GOOGLE my POETRY BLOGS @https://www.blogger.com/profile/02166493604739619406.Read an Ekphrasis e-book for free @ http://free-ekphrasis-ebook.blogspot.com/

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HOW WOULD YOU FEEL? Now with update

Blog Posted:6/13/2017 2:10:00 PM

In October next there will be published some early poems by Sylvia Plath,that were found last month in the back of one of her notebooks

How might Sylvia react to seeing these poems published that she probably never intended for others to read, perhaps these are some of her uncertain literary beginnings.

How many of us would be happy to show all and sundry our first unpublished poetic steps ..

What do you feel in these circumstances?

Have you still got all your poetry filed away somewhere? or maybe you have already published everything already?..

or maybe you have already destroyed them...

perhaps. by not so doing Sylvia's giving tacit approval thereto?

UPDATE

It is not quite as straight forward as the first reference that I read on Sunday last.

It seems two academics who are writing a book on Sylvia and husband Ted Hughes and by using Photoshop to decifer some carbon paper(remember that technique folks) at the back of Sylvia's notebooks discovering two poems and other things of interest to them in regard to their project.

Puts a slightly different light on things but does not invalidate any of the comments made hereto so far on this topic for which you have my thanks.

Here is a !ink to the newspaper article on this topic

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/may/24/unseen-sylvia-plath-poems-deciphered-in-carbon-paper

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Cyndi
Macmillan

Date: 6/14/2017 6:50:00 PM

It just gets worse and worse!!! I just read the article, Brian!! www.theguardian.com/books/2017/may/24/unseen-sylvia-plath-poems-deciphered-in-carbon-paper The word I have for those 'academics' I can not utter on soup as it breaks the rules of profanity... but I'm thinking them!!! From the article: “They [the poems] aren't very good..." "They show her grappling with personal issues..." Brian, if you can, can you post a link to the article?

Richard D Seal
Date: 6/15/2017 5:47:00 PM

Hi Cyndi/Catie, It's because she has no choice an there will be folks making money from it. Simple as that.

Richard D Seal
Date: 6/15/2017 5:47:00 PM

Hi Cyndi/Catie, It's because she has no choice an there will be folks making money from it. Simple as that.

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 6/14/2017 8:32:00 PM

Catie, that is how I felt. She'd always struggled with depression and then her husband cheated on her. How would she feel of some pokey academics trying to shed light on their earlier collaborations, before he broke her heart? It's all so wrong...

Cyndi
Macmillan

Date: 6/14/2017 6:19:00 PM

If we are to say that our scribbles, unfinished work or work we were not content should be available to ANY READER after we die, then what about our more personal details? Our diaries? Our letters? Things we said in confidence? Our sex lives? -- some poetry is that personal and our private writing is nobody's business. Poet's explore issues, sometimes, privately and those poems are for their eyes only. If we feel otherwise, then we would not keep anything personal, anything private. I find what those academics are doing to be distasteful and that they are akin to literati paparazzi-- going through garbage, deciphering something that was tossed away but the ghost-print on a carbon copy remains is crossing the line. Put it this way, what shouldn't be done when the poet is ALIVE, shouldn't be done once the poet is DEAD. Death is being used as an excuse to play peeping Tom, to basically break and enter and if these documents were offered up like sacrificial lambs by her offspring, then shame on them. Someone is trying to make money by poking into something they have no right to poke into. Yes. I feel strong about this. But I feel strongly about most things. If Sylvia had wanted those words shared, they'd have been sent to her editor and there'd be another copy out there. That there is only a carbon left indicates she discarded what she wrote... either out of regret or further thought or a feeling that the work was not what she wanted it to be. Would any of us want someone to pick through our garbage? UGH.

James Marshall Goff
Date: 6/15/2017 5:45:00 AM

You are right, Cyndi....if one can be honest...there are a couple poems of mine I would feel quite vulnerable if circulated....as if, someone looked deeply into my heart without permission...I'm deeply moved by your comment

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 6/14/2017 6:30:00 PM

It's like they are treating her like a criminal, in a way... forensics! This is so disturbing to me that I will write about it... FOR HER ... and dedicate the poem TO HER. As a fellow poet, I stand BY HER.

Andrea
Dietrich

Date: 6/14/2017 3:20:00 PM

Why are our one syllable words now being divided up at the end of lines inside these boxes of text?? That is so weird!!

Richard D Seal
Date: 6/15/2017 5:48:00 PM

And not just one syllable words, lol.

Andrea
Dietrich

Date: 6/14/2017 3:18:00 PM

We have no control over anything these days. Poetry plagiarized, poetry found and used for someone else's bad intent, and in some cases we can not even do a thing about it. I suppose if we have our poems taken after death, it should not really matter any more. We are gone and nobody will remember after another 50 years have passed anyway. Actually, just to be so famous or popular that people want to dig up anything you wrote is a form of flattery. If it makes you look stupid, people won't care because they will realize you were younger and they will be impressed by your growth as an artist. If it was super personal, it's your family to blame for letting it out. So be kind to your relatives!

Sunlite
Wanter

Date: 6/14/2017 10:01:00 AM

If anyone were to want to read my poetry after I'm gone, I wouldn't care at all. What would I do with it? LOL Think Emily Dickinson!

Craig
Cornish

Date: 6/14/2017 9:12:00 AM

If I was famous enough and someone cared enough to read them, I would be honored. I think most here would feel the same if they became famous enough and in addition right or wrong, when one becomes famous they do sell some of their soul to the "gods" of vanity. It is, after all, their fans that paid them. The contest I just ended was an Anne Frank kind of diary and I think she looks down and says "I pray it serves you all well". The more we can learn about those like Sylvia, the more we can learn about ourselves and perhaps some of the early writings can give us a glimpse into her troubled artistic soul. I won't,and I know you won't critique the quality but awe at how a true poets mind works

James Marshall Goff
Date: 6/14/2017 9:39:00 AM

good comment, Craig...life is like a forest fire...if one survives....scars remain & the burn is never forgotten....poets show us the magic that surrounds us....as we battle the flames

Robert
Lindley

Date: 6/14/2017 8:29:00 AM

The only poetry from my much younger years I would not want read by any other than my own family are the ones deeply personal in my private journals. Some of which I have shared here . The majority of that trove are far too personal thus will be read after my death by my family. I would not want any of those made public.. Sadly I purged about 160 poems when entering my mid-thirties. Burned them in a fit of anger. All were far better than my current writings.

James Marshall
Goff

Date: 6/14/2017 6:52:00 AM

As we are close (historic analogy) as many believe, to living in a world where man & machine are merged...the decline of realism...there is controversy whether literature will have more than "museum" relevance...in-so-far-as a window into possible existential biographical dissemination....would one not want to even glimpse Van Gogh's simplist brushstroke?

Craig Cornish
Date: 6/14/2017 9:27:00 AM

Exactly James. I hope I'm not alone in having more interest (to learn) in the process than the final production. Original manuscripts with cross-outs etc. or early poems so you can see how they grow. Some actually decline but those are also chapters to learn from.

Robert Lindley
Date: 6/14/2017 8:33:00 AM

No amount of words , no matter how well composed and presented can give more than a little glimpse into a person's soul. Yet tis true, we poets tend to give more, ask for less and hope our words may be gifts that may aid others. As Life presents so many pitfalls and devious traps for the young and the gullible. Sharing such lessons in verse , hopefully may make others (the young) think twice before falling into those traps.

Doug Vinson
Date: 6/14/2017 8:20:00 AM

1.) Jim - wow, what a comment. : ) I had to get a second cup of coffee... About 2400 years ago, Plato worried about the written word - that it would induce people to kick their memory to the curb, that they'd be more focused on "external characters which are no part of themselves." I imagine the old boy would be well-nigh horrified by our modern world.

Doug Vinson
Date: 6/14/2017 8:19:00 AM

2.) I think some fears, there, were unfounded, and that a surprising amount of a person can appear on a printed page. Yet there's a huge gulf between then and now, and I can only halfway guess what it was like to live back then. Now, entire days can pass without me speaking to another person, and our pace of change is frantic. I may not know what I am missing.

Doug Vinson
Date: 6/14/2017 8:17:00 AM

3.) If humans and machines merge, will we ever change the definition of "machine"? Will desire live on, and will there be artists, or only considerations of whether the current flows or not?

Agnes
Krampe

Date: 6/13/2017 7:43:00 PM

I still have some of my fairly early poetry, and I would be mortified if somebody put it out for the world to see. Perhaps I would feel differently if I were a famous, accomplished, published poet; I can see how it would be interesting for the world to know the humble beginnings and the early development of a poet's work. However, it seems very intrusive to me - akin to unwrapping and analyzing a mummy. No, I do not think that by not destroying her early work she gave tacit consent for publication.

Heidi
Sands

Date: 6/13/2017 6:33:00 PM

I have many from years ago, that I have not tackled yet with putting in here, and they are deeper. Having gone through some intense things. I would not feel comfortable with someone just going with them like that.

Cyndi
Macmillan

Date: 6/13/2017 4:38:00 PM

It's different when poets choose to reveal their juvenilia. I find it a bit like grave robbing when private writings are put out there after death. That being said, look at the Diary of Anne Frank. The world would have lost that gem if it hadn't been shared post mortem. I think, however, when it comes to creative writing, it's disrespectful to publish work which the writer/poet may not have been ready to bring to an editor. Today, I read a poem on Rattle by Douglas Blazek. He disappeared from public eye for decades. He spent thirty years revising HIS previously PUBLISHED WORK. He wasn't even happy with what was already in print!How would HE have felt having his work found and exposed?

Doug Vinson
Date: 6/14/2017 7:32:00 AM

Good question, Cyndi. I had never heard of Blazek, but what a great example, there. He's still living, correct? I didn't see any death notices. I think that in the end - if we personify the dead - would not many of them change perspective, perhaps, to "Oh what the heck - let them see it all. What's it going to hurt, now?"

Agnes Krampe
Date: 6/13/2017 7:43:00 PM

It is funny that you mentioned grave robbing - that was exactly what I thought of! (I had written my comment before reading teh other replies)

John
Anderson

Date: 6/13/2017 2:42:00 PM

Numb in death, she may squirm in her grave, but after death I see no problem with this. The notes and scribblings of many poets are very revealing and informative to people who study them. Understanding the process is very helpful.

Doug Vinson
Date: 6/14/2017 7:16:00 AM

I agree, John. She died 54 years ago. Still some cross-currents in my mind, but better that that revealing take place than not. Sad story - suicide at age 30, but she was often in "confessional" mode with her writing, in the first place.

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HOW WOULD YOU FEEL? Now with update - Brian Strand's Blog

HOW WOULD YOU FEEL? Now with update

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