Poetic Insight

I'm pretty well addicted to Jenni's blog [link]. I've "known" her for years through Moontown, and I've always loved her poetry, which she doesn't post nearly enough of for my taste, but then, she's probably smart not to put it all out there like I do. But her poetry isn't why I read her blog.

I have to make a confession before I can explain why I love Jenni and her blog so much.

Though I've always been very open-minded and tried very hard not to allow myself to buy into small-minded generalizations, there is one that, years ago when I met her, Jenny made me realize I had subconsciously subscribed to. See she's always been open about the fact the she used to be a stripper - and she never bothered to try to dress it up and call it exotic dancing or whatever other shame-induced pseudonym folks have come up with. She was a stripper, not necessarily proud of it, but not once have I ever gotten the impression she was ashamed of it either. Actually, I think, in contrast to most women, she found it empowering. Something sure as hell empowered her, but that's a whole other entry.

See somehow, even though I stripped for a few days on a bet once, I always had the misconception that strippers were ignorant, that they stripped because they were too stupid to know better, or too uneducated to think that they could do better. She blew that bit of prejudice right out of the water with the first poem she ever posted. But seriously folks, you don't have to be a genius to write poetry, right?

Well, I don't know about genius, but Jenni is one seriously smart cookie who has more knowledge on poetry and poetics than I can comprehend. I read her because she's like my oracle, my fountain of knowledge. She blogs about poetry, and the building blocks thereof, like she's discussing a spaghetti recipe, just whipping out all the right terminology and references like it's nothing to her. And when she gets into one of these posts, I always learn something, and always come away thinking about one poetic device or another in a way, or at a depth, I hadn't before. She opens me, and I love that.

She reads SO MUCH poetry, and absorbs it like a sponge, and evaluates it and posts her impressions, her likes and dislikes, and her whys - I love her ability to explain so perfectly what it is about a poet or journal that draws her to them/it, or pushes her away from it. I refer to her posts for "poets to read" and "journals to subscribe to" and "books to buy." Unfortunately, I have no money with which to subscribe or buy so I also use her a bit like Cliff Notes.

Anyway, all that and all I wanted to do really was link to this post she made about Robert Lowell [link] because it brings up one poetic device that I really try to pay attention to when I'm writing. It's worth a read, and some thought.

Tagged: Blogging, Literature, Poetics, Poetry, Writing