| Author | Message | ||
| Ann Metlay
Senior Member Username: wordsrworthy Post Number: 4615 Registered: 08-2007 |
I have learned so much since joining Wild. TRhe current thread on line breaks has been very useful. A problem I encounter poem after poem is that I can begin them, my line breaks, while not masterful,are not horrid, but when I come to end the poem I either become "tell-ie", leave the reader dangling, or find some other sin for the reader. Is there an art to ending poems? Ann I am paying attention to small beauties, whatever I have--as if it were our duty to find things to love, to bind ourselves to this world. (Sharon Olds) | ||
| ~M~
Board Administrator Username: mjm Post Number: 30719 Registered: 11-1998 |
Dearest Ann -- an entire book could be devoted to the subject of ending poems. In fact, many have. *smile* Or at least many books written on the art of writing poetry cover this topic as well as many other poetic elements. We had a Challenge not too long ago that discussed this topic briefly: Challenge At the bottom of that Challenge is a link to the book that discusses this topic in more depth. It's called "Creating Poetry," by John Drury. I highly recommend it! Love, M | ||
| brenda morisse
Advanced Member Username: moritric Post Number: 2225 Registered: 04-2007 |
Often, I'll read the poem backwards, the moment i sum up what I've written i know the line before that is probably the last line. Sometimes, the first line is the last line and the last line is the first line or the middle ends it. Sometimes I write a poem and realize i only have a line or two that work, so, then i begin another poem, and so on.. When to end? It's like a handshake or hug, at a certain moment you know to back away. Sometimes you never want to let go. Really, I write and write and write and then i cut and cut and cut and write and write. I wish i had an answer for you and me. (Message edited by moritric on July 11, 2008) | ||
| Lazarus
Senior Member Username: lazarus Post Number: 3588 Registered: 10-2005 |
Hi Ann- Good topic and yes it could be discussed at length. I've had trouble with them and I've learned not to blame them in every instance, sometimes it is the poem that lost its way. But that said, I find that my first instinct is not always right on an ending. You need a working ending for the poem to reach a stage where you can revise though, so you have to write one, you just can't get married to it. I have also had the problem of having too many endings, or having an ending come along too soon, before the poem has really said what I wanted to say. In that case I keep writing anyway and ignore that ending; later it may become two poems. On effects of an ending. I think we often make the mistake of rounding things up or get philosophical. I know it seems like a rookie mistake, but we can be very good writers and still miss that problem. If you find anything summarizing about what your saying toward the end you can go a head and cut that. The best things to end on are going to be the same things that work in a poem already like an image or an action. I think the most important thing is not to give too much to the reader but give them just a few pieces of a puzzle to solve. Hope that's enough to chew on for now. -Laz | ||
| Ann Metlay
Senior Member Username: wordsrworthy Post Number: 4617 Registered: 08-2007 |
Thanks E, M and Laz. All of your answers have beeen quite helpful. Ann I am paying attention to small beauties, whatever I have--as if it were our duty to find things to love, to bind ourselves to this world. (Sharon Olds) | ||
| Gary Blankenship
Moderator Username: garydawg Post Number: 24585 Registered: 07-2001 |
Most important - end in a shaggy dog joke... Smiles. Dawg the bad Celebrate Walt with Gary: http://www.poetrykit.org/pkl/tw10/tw4conte.htm | ||
| Fred Longworth
Senior Member Username: sandiegopoet Post Number: 4203 Registered: 05-2006 |
To amplify what Laz said, the goal is for the poem to resonate. That means that the poem keeps on rattling around in your brain, even though you have physically put down the text. Now it is possible for a poem to end with some awesome insight or philosophical realization, where the reader goes "Wow! That was amazing!" But in a deconstructive literary atmosphere, pious verities are suspect. Better to get the reader engaged in some matter of life, and NOT offer closure. I say this as a writer one of whose principal shortcomings is a tendency to "wrap it all up with a clever twist." So, Ann, your "leaving the reader dangling" is not such a bad thing, so long as s/he is hanging from a well-wrought rope. Fred Unofficial Forum Pariah -- recent victim of alien abduction -- I'm running out of places to store the bodies. | ||
| Emusing
Senior Member Username: emusing Post Number: 6004 Registered: 08-2003 |
I've never really understood the term deconstruction Fred, except in a negative sense as some sort of denial that there can be an actual interpretation of a text. Maybe you can explain it to me because I find the concept difficult to grasp. This is not meant to target anyone at all but a general dislike for the oblique aesthetic that seems prevelant in contemporary journals. I wonder about a concept that seems to rely on being interesting rather than communicating any type of message. I hope there will always be room for meaning in poetry and while we don’t have to end our poems with the proverbial gong I am fond of a well rendered finish—which I count equally as important as its beginning. I am probably more of a Romantic than anything else and find it difficult in a world that tends to minimize the personal, eliminate the “I” and venture toward an atmosphere devoid of emotion and passion. My sister is a modern dance choreographer. She laments the turn contemporary dance has taken even in the post modern school where she was encouraged to remove “the self” from her creations! e (Message edited by emusing on July 13, 2008) Word Walker Press; Moonday Poetry; Kyoto Journal Education should be the process of helping everyone to discover his uniqueness. --Leo Buscaglia | ||
| Kath Abela Wilson
New member Username: kathabela Post Number: 4 Registered: 06-2008 |
I like what Fred said -that it is most important for the poem to "resonate". I think that the ending should be "resonant", and exactly -how- depends on the poem, but to get that to happen one way or another, all the way through, and especially in ending, is exciting. | ||
| Emusing
Senior Member Username: emusing Post Number: 6005 Registered: 08-2003 |
Yes resonance is a very good word and one I use for everything--like lotsa salt. I love that word. Great to see you posting. Please put a poem in Creative Visualization when you get a chance. x e Word Walker Press; Moonday Poetry; Kyoto Journal Education should be the process of helping everyone to discover his uniqueness. --Leo Buscaglia |
