I do not think I agree – either that poetry is a ‘high calling’ or that those of us that feel the need to write it necessarily have ‘good fortune’ (in the widest sense of the term). I would welcome other views on this, so please feel free to comment below.
My writing friend, Liz Whittaker is a great story-teller, both in the written and spoken form and her work is far from what she herself describes as ‘possibly shallow’ (in contrast to poetry, which she describes as having ‘depth’).
True, I feel a compulsion to write poetry… I have to get the ideas out there, so I write it, I read it publicly and publish on my blog. But sometimes I wish that I found the same compulsion to write more entertaining, perhaps lighter, stories. I long to get my novel together, yet the poetry keeps pulling me from that work.
Maybe the lesson of this debate is that, well, we write what we write, what we do best (I hope) and we all do it to communicate something. I don’t think any form of writing deserves the tag of a ‘higher calling’ than any other. All forms have their own value.
It is what it is, we are what we are – if we feel a vocation to write, our only criteria must be to write with honesty and to do the best work that we can.
Brit Writers
Facebook
Twitter
Poets just are.... Writers write when the inclination is there and when they are ready to let it out. For me I know that sometimes a poem gets in the way of writing other things and this can sometimes be a very long time indeed but if it's in there it will come out. As for it being "a higher calling" I don't think I can agree with that as it has a kind of elitist ring to it. I see writers as artists with a facility to use language in different ways. Not all writers write poetry, not all poets write in other genre. It is very much about individual expression, I do think however that the more one does it then the more one wants to it, whether in poetic form or as a short story, an essay, a novel, an article or even a report. It is a calling but whether it it is higher than music, plumbing, farming, cleaning, caring or any other occupation is not clear to me. All I know is that it gives me great pleasure and I can't stop myself from doing it. Perhaps one could say it is a compulsion rather than a calling.
ReplyDeleteI agree Harry, and there I was looking for an argument!
ReplyDelete