I've been reading poetry by Aaron Belz of late. I'll be honest and say that most of it makes very little sense to me. I feel that either I am too concrete, too uneducated, or too impatient to understand it. I wish that someone would explain him to me the way someone once explained Gertrude Stein to me, and modern art to me, if those things can really be explained at all.
Take Gertrude Stein. Her famous collection of bits of poems, "Tender Buttons," is nothing if not disorienting. An example:
A BOX.
 |
| A picture of an actual box seemed far too literal. |
Out of kindness comes redness and out of rudeness comes rapid same question, out of an eye comes research, out of selection comes painful cattle. So then the order is that a white way of being round is something suggesting a pin and is it disappointing, it is not, it is so rudimentary to be analysed and see a fine substance strangely, it is so earnest to have a green point not to red but to point again.
(This and more like it can be found here. I really like the one called "A Shawl.")
Read it aloud to yourself if you like. The rhythm and even the grammar feels right. Yet somehow I feel like I'm dreaming in a place where sentences don't have proper subjects and nobody teaches Comp II... This poem is satisfying, but I'm more inclined to want to "tie the poem to a chair with a rope / and torture a confession out of it" (Billy Collins--I think of this all the time.--Rest of poem here.)
What helped me not to go crazy with the "Tender Buttons" was someone pointing out that I needed to relax and let it speak on its own terms. Which, let's be honest, are a completely different race than the Comp II marathon. These poems mean something, but it's a feeling, a sort of making-the-camera-unfocused-on-purpose. Once I was able to stop wringing meaning out of them, they were more enjoyable.
Then we come to Aaron Belz. His poems, when I feel like I am following them, are entertaining. Otherwise, the ideas are so disparate that I literally start to fall asleep. (I hope you don't ever find and read this, Aaron Belz. I'm sure it's not a reflection on you.) I just wish I would be told how to approach them, because I don't think my method is working. I think it speaks to the importance of knowing audience, context, genre, author. We can't separate writing from its context in any significant way. Even Gertrude Stein's poems use words in unexpected ways because we already have expectations. The words she's trying to break down can only be used because they already exist. But it helps to know both the words, and her goal, ahead of time.
I'm not sure what my conclusion is in all this. I know I'm moving on to poets that I understand better. I think we need deep meaning in our lives, communication that actually comes across. I think the postmodern art movement (loosely speaking) comes out of a fear of speaking big truths and possibly saying them wrongly or insincerely. In our effort not to make trivialities out of large truths, we focus in tightly on small things, on disillusionment, and not the bigger truth that's big enough to contain us all.
But I also think there's a place for having fun and enjoying the ride, because all entertainment has some kind of meaning. Here's one of my favorite, most lucid poems by Mr. Belz:
The Love-Hat Relationship
I have been thinking about the love-hat relationship.
It is the relationship based on love of one another's hats.
The problem with the love-hat relationship is that it is superficial.
You don't necessarily even know the other person.
Also it is too dependent on whether the other person
is even wearing the favored hat. We all enjoy hats,
but they're not something to build an entire relationship on.
My advice to young people is to like hats but not love them.
Try having like-hat relationships with one another.
See if you can find something interesting about
the personality of the person whose hat you like.
For more, and other fun stuff, visit his website here: belz.net/
It's always good to know someone else has as much trouble with abstract poetry as I do! For me, it's never worked out well when someone else tells me how to read something. Even if it works, I feel like I didn't really "get it." Like I cheated by not undergoing the discovery myself, missed out on some important lesson. A shortcut that gets you where you're going is still a shortcut.
ReplyDeleteThe list of poems I don't understand is lengthy, but I think it's worthwhile to try to figure it out anyway. I'm curious to know what this does to your own writing, though. Do you want to be a straightforward poet, speaking directly and perhaps less through feeling? Or do you want to try to delve into that unknown realm where others (and maybe even you) can't fully vocalize what your poem is saying? I think there can be big truths in both (though they present themselves in much different ways). Most people, in my opinion anyway, gravitate toward one type of writing or the other. I fall wholeheartedly into the "just say what you mean" camp. But sometimes, even if just for a writing exercise, I force myself to be abstract. Stretching your writing muscles is good, and occasionally, things happen.
I think abstract poetry is one of the hardest, but also one of the most wonderful, things for me to approach as a reader. If I get it, then I love it and want to read it over just because I appreciate it so much. If I don't get it, it's hard for me to drag any meaning or literary value out from it. And I completely resonate with your Billy Collins quote of tying the poem to a chair, etc.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that I've been noticing a lot about the poetry that I especially enjoy reading is that those poems manage to be totally abstract and concrete at the same time. A very simple statement is made, something understandable and most often shown in a concrete illustration. But then the poet takes it even further and brings out a brilliant, abstract illustration that I never would have picked up on but that completely works.
I agree, it's really hard to come to any conclusive thoughts on strange and abstract poetry. I do, however, think that it is a worthwhile study and a beautiful display of imagination that can't be expressed in any other way. It can also stretch your own mind as a reader and possibly improve your own creative thinking and writing.
Not going to lie...I think abstract poetry is a sham for people who are good with words but have nothing real to say. I can appreciate the skill and beauty needed to construct on of those pieces (I don't think I could write a decent abstract poem if my life depended on it), but in the grand scheme of things, I just feel like people are trying too hard to be "writerly." I do like that even though it doesn't make sense on a logical level, it still has the ability to make you feel something. ...sometimes anyway. That is a sneaky little trick that could be very useful.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Heidi: I know I've felt that way about certain abstract poems (you know, the ones where you can practically see the author acting all pretentious while they churn out useless but pretty verbs). But I think it's too broad of an accusation to say that all abstract poetry is this sort of farce. Inevitably, there will be a poem you read in class that you hate and someone else loves. They say they connect with it on several levels, that it's overflowing with meaning. Couldn't this just be an example of how different people think differently? Perhaps the abstract poems are just as valid as their more grounded counterparts, and those of us who tend to have a very direct train of thought have trouble making those connections.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely know what you mean when you say you have a hard time understanding what poets mean sometimes. Sometimes it could be a matter of being too concrete, but mostly I would think not. Even if we are concrete, we should be able to understand vague, sentimental, or abstract poetry, wouldn't you think? Because we think that way sometimes. At least I do. I feel like my journal entries are REALLY abstract, whereas my actual serious writing tends to be more thought out and detailed and controlled. I don't think you can be too uneducated. But maybe too impatient! When reading poetry for my Contemporary Poetry class, I've found I want to blitz through the poems really quickly and understand them. But I have to slow down and read it a few times before I think I really have an idea of what's going on.
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ReplyDeleteOh my gosh, I love the love-hat poem! Studying authors to write poetry seems like a very different playing field than prose. It must be difficult to emulate someone you're not even sure you understand. Maybe it does help to know more about the author's life. I know that helped me with Dickens, but is poetry the same as giant works of fiction?
ReplyDeleteI think I'm the odd one here because abstract is my favorite kind of poetry. However, I very much have to be in a certain mood to actually read and enjoy it instead of breezing through it real quickly. I think of it like this: when someone writes an abstract poem, they're taking all of the pictures and feelings and colors and structures in their brain, raw and original, just how are they are floating around up there in the synapses, and lie them out on the paper. Often haphazardly.
ReplyDeleteThe part that is difficult is we obviously are not in their brain to know what these clues mean (duh). I think reading abstract poetry is 3 parts imagination and 1 part author's intent. My favorite part is wondering about the circumstances in these authors' lives that caused such interesting and stark images.
I did, however, agree with your conclusion about the fear of speaking big truths. I think there's much shame and panic at getting to the root of what's actually happening and putting it out there for all to see.
I'd have to agree with Lauren - I am all about abstract. I think that is mainly because my mind is wired to be comfortable with weird. I love wondering into possibilities. I love weird people and weird language and connecting with strange lyrical themes.
ReplyDeleteI think abstract poets have a lot to say, and they are not trying to spell it out for you. I don't think that the poetry is for the audience but to give lungs and life to an idea that completely clicks with them. That they can set sail to.
And besides, who hasn't mused about hats! Excellent excerpt.
"See if you can find something interesting about
the personality of the person whose hat you like."