|
PRELUDE
|
|
What is a man of letters? Is there such a thing as a mute poet? Can such a man speak at all? If he did, would his words be lyrical and triumphant, or would they sound feeble and half hearted?
Such a man should turn back to the past. He sould remember the rituals of the hunt. He should sing a healing song, a PAEAN.
PAEAN is a poetic novel in seven chapters. |
|
Rituals of the Hunt_PAEAN
|
|
The principle difference between prose and poetry is subject matter. While the subject matter of prose is
everything under the sun, poetry is limited to the expression of basic human emotion. This should make it easy to write poetry, but it does not. Human emotions seem to resist any attempt to frame them with words. It is almost like feelings refuse to be contained or limited by any form of literal or oral expression. How many times have you said to yourself, "Words are inadequate," or "I can't find the words to say how I feel." The reason for this is primal. People could feel things long before they developed the gift of language. So it is not quite correct to say that emotions in there elemental state are non-verbal. It is more accurate to say that they are pre-verbal. This is not a failure of insight and self-awareness, nor is it a fool's errand to make the effort. It is true that poetry can never be direct and precise, never scalpel like, the way prose is. It will always be reaching, stretching, grasping and not quite getting there. It will inevitably need to fall back on symbol and metaphor to make its way. This is why poetry must always run below the waterline of conscious thought. It can only hint at, suggest, conjure up a feeling, but never hope to inscribe it. |
|
Poetry runs below the waterline of conscious thought.
|