I know we want to do this but we have to be careful. There are so many dangers. The worst outcome is making something ridiculous, something contrived and dishonest, that will serve as evidence against the goodness of what we all want. You cannot write good poetry in a lie because it will be unnatural. I don’t know that we can yet write the poetry we wish we had. I think we have to go within like this Emin says. In fact I don’t know that any poet has gone anywhere but within. When we look back and read them it seems like they were looking outside, but I don’t think this is true. I think that they had more in them. They were deep where we are shallow; they were full where we are empty. If we try to lie and pretend we are not we will write lies like Emin does. That is her sin: she suffers like anyone with senses would these days but she lies and lies and lies to herself about why with this thing called “ideology.” That’s why her poetry sounds so horrible: underneath it you can hear the screams of humanity tortured on a rack of lies. The only thing admissible for us is to tell the truth. I can’t tell you what that means for you: if you have enough in you to write something vital and healthy again, then you should write it because it is true. But I know that often I feel despair, grief, and longing. I want to feel more than that, and sometimes I do feel more than that, but haven’t learned how to write poetry about it yet. Right now all I get are images: the sense of things waiting behind a dark veil or a mist. I believe that expressing the truth will draw back the veil one day, as long as I am as honest as I need to be, but I cannot make it happen.
I want nothing but good for you and your task. I want to claim it as my task too. We’re starting to know what we need and what we long for. I believe the only thing that will get us there is truth, which is to see everything both without and within. We need to bring more into us so that we may give it back, and we can’t do that without first admitting what we lack. We can write poetry about the lack too; we can write about anything that’s true, if we learn to see it. Let me believe in you.
Can't wait to get a copy of this! Outstanding post - this kind of thing matters more than ever these days.
I know we want to do this but we have to be careful. There are so many dangers. The worst outcome is making something ridiculous, something contrived and dishonest, that will serve as evidence against the goodness of what we all want. You cannot write good poetry in a lie because it will be unnatural. I don’t know that we can yet write the poetry we wish we had. I think we have to go within like this Emin says. In fact I don’t know that any poet has gone anywhere but within. When we look back and read them it seems like they were looking outside, but I don’t think this is true. I think that they had more in them. They were deep where we are shallow; they were full where we are empty. If we try to lie and pretend we are not we will write lies like Emin does. That is her sin: she suffers like anyone with senses would these days but she lies and lies and lies to herself about why with this thing called “ideology.” That’s why her poetry sounds so horrible: underneath it you can hear the screams of humanity tortured on a rack of lies. The only thing admissible for us is to tell the truth. I can’t tell you what that means for you: if you have enough in you to write something vital and healthy again, then you should write it because it is true. But I know that often I feel despair, grief, and longing. I want to feel more than that, and sometimes I do feel more than that, but haven’t learned how to write poetry about it yet. Right now all I get are images: the sense of things waiting behind a dark veil or a mist. I believe that expressing the truth will draw back the veil one day, as long as I am as honest as I need to be, but I cannot make it happen.
I want nothing but good for you and your task. I want to claim it as my task too. We’re starting to know what we need and what we long for. I believe the only thing that will get us there is truth, which is to see everything both without and within. We need to bring more into us so that we may give it back, and we can’t do that without first admitting what we lack. We can write poetry about the lack too; we can write about anything that’s true, if we learn to see it. Let me believe in you.