While I’ve written hundreds of poems over the years, I have always found myself rather disconnected from pursuing the art on a regular basis. I’ve long reserved poetry as a means of expressing thoughts, emotions, or ideas. At times, I have some jumbled thoughts that seem to loosely fit together, but wouldn’t be easily put into prose. Writing poetry, then, became a reflex, as much of my writing has become.
When I first began making collections for my poetry, it was suggested that I call the collection “Reflections on Life.” I felt like that wouldn’t be the best title to publish my work. Still, it’s true many of my poems indeed do reflect on various aspects of my life. So, how much of my poetry is made up of actual reflections on life, and how much becomes distorted through verse?
Writing Poetry VS Writing Stories
As a child, my imagination was boundless. Teachers often asked us to write stories. My first few efforts were filled with whimsical nonsense, yet they were enjoyed. I took pride the laughter of my classmates as I shared tales of talking animals and magical space travels. Back then, I dreamt of becoming a novelist, crafting intricate plots and developing rich characters and settings. But as I grew older, I realized that weaving coherent narratives was an arduous task. My mind would flit from one idea to another, never settling long enough to build a solid foundation. Even in my late-thirties, this is still the case.
My imagination rarely remains on a single thread for long. That’s because my brain is ready to move on soon after I start. I’ve worked on these things mightily over the years, but it’s true that poetry comes far more naturally to me than long-form stories. Proper plot structure and development are aspects of literature that continue to elude me.
After I found that writing stories wasn’t fulfilling for me, I shifted my focus to writing song lyrics. Of course, without musical accompaniment, they were “just” poems. I was rarely happy with my work. It was often very emotionally charged and often took cues from my dreams and my imagination.
Still, writing poetry somehow came naturally to me, unlike the structured demands of storytelling. Each poem was a raw, emotional snapshot, often inspired by dreams and fleeting moments of imagination. Looking back, I realized that while some poems were rough, they held an authenticity that my attempts at long-form stories lacked.
In retrospect, a lot of my early poetry was good. Of course, a lot of it wasn’t. But, as I look back at my older pieces over time, I’m not so sure what I inevitably discarded was so bad after all. In my teenage years, poetry became a sanctuary, a place where my fragmented thoughts found form. Lines of verse allowed me to express emotions that prose couldn’t contain.
My early poems were a mixed bag — some were quite enjoyable, a few especially thought-provoking, but many others fell flat. I often dismissed my work as time passed, but over they years, I grew to appreciate the honesty and spontaneity within those lines. There was a beauty in their imperfection, a truth that prose could not capture.
Some years ago, I shifted back to writing stories. I created a great many colorful characters and imagined complex backdrops, both political and natural. Still, I struggled to get it all to work in harmony. It was suggested to me several times to turn my creative work into poems. But, there was too much of a disconnect between poems and story writing for me that I could hardly attempt it. A few decent poems came out of it, though, it never became a regular outlet for me.
Are My Poems Reflections or Distortions of Life?
For Christmas one year, I was asked what sort of books I would want to read. I made a request for poetry-related books. Fortunately I was given a book about teaching children to write poetry. It’s an older book, but just as relevant today as it was in the 1970s: “Wishes, Lies and Dreams” by Kenneth Koch. Apparently, it was a big deal in the English literature community when it was first published. Sadly, the great lessons the book teaches seemingly have been forgotten by many people today.
His belief that poems should be born from wishes, lies, and dreams struck a chord with me. It reminded me that poetry, like childhood stories, could be free and unrestrained. I thought of taking cues from Koch’s work with grade-school children. Poems should be of the stuff of wishes, real or crazy. Poems should be the stuff of lies — innocent, pretty, or gross. They should be the stuff of dreams, free to associate even in the most seemingly absurd ways.
Koch’s method which encouraged children to start with “I wish” or “I dream” was revolutionary. It simplified the creative process, stripping away the complexities that often stifled adult poets. This way, it’s easy to make comparisons with seemingly disparate things to form vivid images. It’s much too easy as an adult to let conventions and fear of rejection color our work or, worst of all, force it into some sort of blandness. This approach reignited my passion for poetry, reminding me that at its core, poetry is about freedom and expression.
Poetry is a creative art just like drawing, painting, sculpting or crafting, just with words. So, the last thing you want to do is over-complicate poetry. Poetry offers a sort of freedom that no other art form I’ve found can offer. It should be an accessible art for everyone, it should be free to express, and begin and end only with a simple idea. Complexity can come with time and practice, but poetry isn’t meant for dissertations, after all.
Why I’ve Strayed From Writing Poetry
As I continued to delve more into reading about how to teach poetry, I rediscovered my love of the craft. For a time, I even considered that my true calling might be to be a poet of sorts. But, my aim has and never will be to have my verses be the stuff of legend. I just need to say what should be said. For even in the lies of poetry, there is always a hint of truth. Unfortunately, verses don’t come to me the way they once did.
I wonder if in no longer writing poetry I somehow lost the spark that I gained from reading Koch’s book. That’s not to say that my prose writing has suffered for it, but whenever I’ve tried to write a poem in the past five years or so, it just sounds forced. Good poetry should never read as forced or pushed to meet some imaginary standard. As I’ve read more about great poets, I realize even the greatest poets are only remembered for a handful of poems, usually a tiny percentage of their total output.
Going back to the idea of my poetry generally being reflections on life, from certain perspectives many of them probably are. Of course, many reflections will also inevitably become distortions. But, “distortions of life” doesn’t make for a particularly tantalizing collection title, nor is it an accurate choice for putting a collective take on my works of verse.
When I started writing poetry, I found a sense of freedom that no other art form provided. But, over time it became clear that my calling wasn’t to create legendary verses, but to simply express what needed to be said. In the end, even the lies of poetry hold a hint of truth, and that’s enough.
Koch’s ideas reinforced that poetry should be accessible, free to explore the absurd and the profound. It was liberating to embrace this perspective, allowing my verses to flow without fear of convention or rejection. This is now how I approach my prose, and perhaps I’ve somehow lost the daring that made my poems that did work worthy to be read.
Even now as I’ve left poetry behind in favor of prose, I carry with me the lessons from Koch’s book. Chief among these are the understanding that poetry, in its simplicity and honesty, is indeed a reflection of life in all its beautiful distortions.
~ Amelia Desertsong
