Wednesday, October 20, 2004

A schtick is not a poetics. I don't know if this is true, and I am not being flippant. what is a poetics? is it descriptive, predictive, prescriptive or even proscriptive? does one fashion a poetics then fit one's work into that? I don't think so, or not usefully. that process sounds bass ackwards. I think the process is more like water finding its own level. one finds what it is one must and will write. the poetics becomes a description, even an apologia for the writing one has done. people start out wanting to write poem. not apoem such and usch, a poem. I think a lot of retrofitting occurs as one defines one's poetics. I think poetics has a lot of just keeping busy while one is not writing. it is a bit of song and dance. and having said that, I also find poetics discussions useful for the energy that they often offer.

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