The art of Poetry
I have been writing poetry for only a few years, and as such, can I really consider myself a poet?. The answer to this question is Yes. To be a poet is a condition, not a profession. Each individual who takes on the quest of writing poetry, places upon his, or her self not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion. Poetry is, not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. As a painter uses color, and the lack of color, light and shade, the poet uses language as his canvas, A poet uses the written word to express his "pictures" to the world. And if the poet is successful in what he is trying to say to the reader, it becomes the revelation of a feeling that the poet believes to be interior and personal which the reader recognizes as his own.
Even when poetry has a meaning, as it usually has, it may be inadvisable to draw it out, perfect understanding will sometimes almost extinguish pleasure. Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood. I've written some poetry I don't understand myself. At times, I may get a thought, and have a clear idea what I want to say, and before the poem is finished, I have gone in a totally different direction, as the lines and ideas flow in and out of my mind until the next one comes along to leave the finished poem in no way resembling the original idea that I started with. This is true of the Painter as well, seeing things not as they are, but as the Painter imagines they are. Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. The poet doesn't invent. He listens. The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth. Each memorable verse of a true poet has two or three times the written content. I find as I read through the hard copies of poems that I have written, there are many changed lines, or thoughts, crossed out and rearranged in an attempt to get the thoughts just as i imagine them in my mind, and that is a very difficult thing to accomplish. Art is the desire of a man to express himself, to record the reactions of his personality to the world he lives in. It enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.
Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that burn. A sculptor is a person who is interested in the shape of things, a poet in words, a musician in sounds. All are on the same plane in my opinion, and all express to the audience in attendance, the thoughts of the artist. An artist is somebody who produces things that people don't need to have. Although people enjoy the art of the poet, the painter, the musician, these are not things that we need to survive, only things that help us enjoy, in a small way that survival.
Dean Evans
