So, why do we write poetry? Or, more to the point, since I can't speak for others: why do I?
First of all, on a technical level, I like the format. It allows me to chew on some idea (old or new), to play with images and rhythms and (hopefully) to end up with something that pleases me and a handful of others who read the poem.
Though I like to tell stories in poems, they don't have to obey to (all) the laws of prose writing. There's a much greater freedom of form in poetry than there is in prose and also more room to experiment.
All of that, of course, does not even come close to being a true answer to the original question. It is not the format that made me start writing poems and that makes me return to that particular field of writing again and again.
When I look at my overflowing binary archives, one thing immediately stands out: the bulk of the poems are love poems - and most of them have been written for specific women. So, you could say that most of my poems are the equivalent of love letters.
That would be a fair assessment but it still leaves us with the question: why poems and not straight love letters? (I've written many a letter too, of course.)
In fact, I suspect I've written all those love poems because I'm drawn to poetry - not because I'm drawn to any woman at any point in time. In other words, if these women had not been there, I'd still written poems. To put it bluntly, the women in my life have always been a great excuse to write poems but not the primary cause of them.
Still no answer to the original question though - and, to be honest, I'm not sure that there is one defining or definitive answer.
So, again, why poetry? As I already said, the format makes it an attractive form of writing - and writing love poems is more fun than buying dubious flowers in petrol stations on your way home.
Why poetry specifically though? You can't answer the question with negatives. While it's true that it takes less time to write a poem than a novel, or even a short story, that's hardly a reason to write poetry. After all, if saving time was an issue, then surely it would be even more practical not to write at all?
On a more serious note, I know that a lot of people believe that there are answers in poetry. That poetry does (or at least can) represent some kind of higher Truth.
I'm not sure about that - for myself, that is. If it works for others, fine; for me, I don't know. It's certainly true that I have read poems that meant (and mean) a lot to me but I'm not sure that what has meaning for me equals any kind of objective Truth - and that's just talking about reading poems, written by some of the best poets who ever picked up a pen.
When it comes to my own writing, I'm even less convinced that what I do has anything to do with seeking for, let alone finding Truth.
It would be quite nice if I believed that for me writing poetry was a form of map making: a way to would help me to both define and find a way through life. What Bush senior once called 'the vision thing' maybe.
I'm not sure about many things but I'm pretty sure that that simply is not true for me. Again, writing poetry might be like that for others but it does not seem to function in that way for me.
So, what does it do for me? Which is, I suppose, just another way of asking: why do I write poetry? As I said before, maybe there is no true answer to it - but it is fun thinking about it.
For me, in a way, writing is just what I do. Often it takes the form of poetry. Most of my first draft writing comes from parts of the brain that are barely conscious. I seldom start with an idea, or an image: they come when I have actually sat down and brought pen to paper.
I hardly ever ask myself how I write - or why I write but it is time now to stop dithering; time to try and reach for at least a tentative answer to my original question.
Right, so here goes.
Maybe this is just my last remaining romantic delusion but if there is an answer to this question it might be that, if there is anything I try to achieve in writing poetry, it is a sense of clarity (or precision.) A maybe futile effort to catch something (anything) in words.
Not Truth. Just a form of clarity of vision.
It might be paradoxical: most people think that poems are, if anything, deliberately and needlessly obscure. Still, for me there is truth in this: poetry - that is, the writing of poems - enables me to concentrate in a way that no other form of writing can do for me. Maybe for me the 'state' of writing poems is what meditation - or even prayer - is to others.
A poet I know once told me that for him the practice of poetry was as much about cultivating a power of vision as it was about communicating that vision to others.
That is very close to how it feels to me - though I would probably have used the word 'centre' instead of 'power.'
Anyway, as I already said, I've learnt not to question what I do (or what is happening inside my head) too much - neither by analysing the processes or by trying to find reasons why I do what I do.
Still, it might be true that for me writing poetry is the best way to come to some kind of clarity, with the act of writing functioning as a kind of meditation. I'm not sure how that works or even if it does but as a tentative answer it seems to ring true.
Thanks for accompanying me on this rambling journey - and yes, of course, I would love to hear why others (think that they must) write poetry.
