“Introduction to Poetry”
-Billy Collins
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to water-ski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with a rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
I don’t normally post other people’s stuff, but I read this poem (again) in a book of essays about preaching last night; the essay argued that often this is what preachers try to do with the text–torture a confession out of it, beat it into submission until it Means Something, preferably something that fits on a bumper sticker.
I decided to post it after reading Keith’s thoughts on John Cage’s 4′33”. His post and the resulting comments got me thinking about poetry and how often people feel defeated by it, as if the poem is one of those jokes with a non-sensical punchline that isn’t funny, but the point is to try to get the person to laugh, thereby making them the joke.
It seems like a big part of the block for people is a perceived need to get at what the author had in mind. Certainly this is a part of the task of reading poetry, to understand the author’s context and think about what she might have been intending. But too often that process deteriorates into binary issues of right and wrong. Two weeks ago Emily Saliers talked about being a vessel for the song, that creativity is about being part of a process that is larger than oneself. A cliche to be sure, but cliches usually are such for a reason. And if there’s truth to her statement, as I believe there is, doesn’t the work of art cease to be the ‘property’ of the artist in some fundamental way? Not completely, but perhaps that’s a way to help people get beyond “I just don’t get [poetry, modern dance, John Cage’s music]. That huge canvas with the blue dot in the center?. I could have done that.” OK, but you didn’t, instead you’re the one standing in the gallery looking at it, so what do you see?
9 Responses to “on my mind today”
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Excellent essay…and a new poem for me. Thanks.
I wonder, is our fear of being the butt of the artist’s joke what distances us from risky art, or is it that in the post-modern era we’ve been taught to see all modern artistic expression with a jaundiced eye that searches for irony, parody, and the artist’s mockery of convention (and by extension us, who are in the “conventional” role of art consumer)?
Is the statement “I know what I like and I don’t like this” as applied to art, literature, poetry, etc., an expression of ignorance and close-mindedness or is it simply a fully valid exression of opinion? I think it is hard to generalize because both can be true.
Somewhere in my consideration of what you’ve written I keep hearing a resonance of narcisism….but is it the artist’s or ours? Is art made only for the artist actually art or is it merely a masturbatory exercise? Is art that is made strickly to fit the prevailing tastes of the time really art or merely a slick advertisement for the status quo?
The quest to tie down poetry, art, and scripture to a single meaning can be the quest for understanding, I suppose, but can also be the ultimate act of eisegesis.
I suppose appropriately, I don’t have any answers…but I am enjoying pondering the question… and that’s generally where I go in sermons too…
I wonder if others would argue that many of us are unwilling to see the concrete “truth” about what something means…particularly scripture…because it isn’t what we “want” it to mean? But based upon what you’ve raised…I’m thinking that’s an apples and oranges argument. Some just don’t feel compelled to tie down meaning at all but to be in the experience of the art or text and let it speak new words all the time…or am I self-justifying?
Thanks for the journey through your mind today…
The specific nugget from Keith’s post that prompted this was his statement (actually from a friend of his) that said,
“Always go in assuming the artist isn’t trying to put one over on you. Go in assuming she’s genuinely trying to get something across. This may sound dodgy at the outset, but it’s probably the single most utilitarian suggestion I’ve encountered in my adulthood for understanding either “serious, academic” art or “commercial, mainstream” art.
What does it cost me to do this? Very little. I suppose it’s possible that the artist could be a prankster and the joke would be on me. But it’s good for my mental health and humility to risk being in that situation from time to time. And the benefit is, art that challenges me and encourages me to dig deep.
this morning i was flipping through the n’s on my way to the m’s looking for mobius in my dictionary and ran across non-art (or nonart???) as a guide word. i’d never heard that word so i looked at the definition and i was stunned to see anti-art (or anti art as the meaning. (the dictionary is 26 steps up from where i’m typing and i’m too lazy to check on hyphens. sorry) i got to thinking about it and decided if non-art is anti-art then nondairy is anti dairy and nonsense is anti sense.
this word/meaning seemed related to your essay so i wanted to pass it along.
loved the billy collins.
I loved that poem.
I heard a sermon lately about the very points you raise. The preacher was married to a modern artist. The question “but what does it MEAN?” was a common one to artist spouse’s ears. And sometimes, we’re not meant to hear those answers, but simply ask the questions again and again.
Love the poem….
Would ordinarily dive into this conversation. Hermeneutics is fabulous topic of conversation, I believe! Alas, I’m worn out and can’t muster any intelligent thoughts. Will come back and read the conversation later.
You know what’s funny, though, is I can get irritated with conceptual art, too. Sometimes I really want to see something I couldn’t do, not just something I didn’t do.
And that’s a great poem. Not being really up on poetry, I hadn’t heard of him until a composer friend set one of his poems to music for a “Songs About Science” concert a few years ago.
years ago when i went to my first conceptual art show, i came home and wrote a poem which ended with “if that’s art, then this is poetry.” (or something similar) it was a watershed moment in my life when i realized that art didn’t have to be classical to be art and poetry didn’t have to be set in stylistic stone to be poetry. thank you to betty o. who was the conceptual artist who mounted that show.
I love Billy Collins. My teacher/mentor/friend turned me on to him a few years ago. I got to see him do a reading in CA.
“The Lanyard” is my favorite.
As an English professor, I’ve had to defend my work against this poem (which I love) and the accusation that what we do in English classes is beat literature with a hose. I would say that what we do, when we’re doing our work well, is feel around the walls for the lightswitches.