You realize you haven’t lived the life to write that poem, but that’s no reason not to write your own.
[after reading a Jack Gilbert poem]
Showing posts with label autobiography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label autobiography. Show all posts
7.22.2025
6.07.2025
person or the poetry
It’s the editor’s dilemma: The feeling that you’re not judging the poetry but the poet’s life.
6.04.2025
2.25.2013
the next big thing: a meme about new books
Anny Ballardini over at NarcissusWorks tagged me with this set of questions. Although I think it was a mistake, as my answers will explain...
What is the working title of the book?
It should be "le livre imaginaire," because everything about my book is somewhat imaginary.
Where did the idea come from for the book?
I'm full of ideas. And I believe, contrary to Mallarmé, that poems and ideas can cohabitate happily. Often the individual poems I write deal directly with particular ideas. But no one of these ideas would be suitable in & of itself for building a book around it.
What genre does your book fall under?
Unpublished, if that is a genre. If not, it should be. Certainly since Dickinson, with her carefully ribboned fascicles, unpublished in book form should be a genre.
What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
Older people tell me I look like Tyrone Power. Middle age people say I look like Kevin Kline. Younger people don't have an opinion on the matter. So currently I'll go with Bradley Cooper.
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
Work-in-progress; like most things in life. In poetry it doesn't seem to be a problem to publish unfinished things.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
30 years, thus far.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
Individual poems inspire me. Books do not. I think poets spend for too much time obssessing over their books, thematic coherence, the order of the poems, etc.
What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?
The fact that my book may never be a book should be intriquing. It intrigues me.
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
None of the above.
I tag Donna Fleischer at the word pond. Here is her Q & A. Thanks, Donna. Meme on.
What is the working title of the book?
It should be "le livre imaginaire," because everything about my book is somewhat imaginary.
Where did the idea come from for the book?
I'm full of ideas. And I believe, contrary to Mallarmé, that poems and ideas can cohabitate happily. Often the individual poems I write deal directly with particular ideas. But no one of these ideas would be suitable in & of itself for building a book around it.
What genre does your book fall under?
Unpublished, if that is a genre. If not, it should be. Certainly since Dickinson, with her carefully ribboned fascicles, unpublished in book form should be a genre.
What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
Older people tell me I look like Tyrone Power. Middle age people say I look like Kevin Kline. Younger people don't have an opinion on the matter. So currently I'll go with Bradley Cooper.
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
Work-in-progress; like most things in life. In poetry it doesn't seem to be a problem to publish unfinished things.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
30 years, thus far.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
Individual poems inspire me. Books do not. I think poets spend for too much time obssessing over their books, thematic coherence, the order of the poems, etc.
What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?
The fact that my book may never be a book should be intriquing. It intrigues me.
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
None of the above.
I tag Donna Fleischer at the word pond. Here is her Q & A. Thanks, Donna. Meme on.
4.08.2012
biographically light
I am not writing my autobiography…I think that only heroes deserve a real biography, but that the history of a poet is not to be presented in such a form. One would have to collect such a biography from unessentials.
—Boris Pasternak, quoted in Themes and Variations in Pasternak’s Poetics (The Peter De Ridder Press, 1975) by Krystyna Pomorska
—Boris Pasternak, quoted in Themes and Variations in Pasternak’s Poetics (The Peter De Ridder Press, 1975) by Krystyna Pomorska
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