Readings, Submissions, and Obsessions
Yay!
I feel like such a dork, lol.
Ok well as you may already know, I have a reading coming up with my fellow poetry classmates. It's on Saturday :-)
Last night in poetry class we were making the final preparations for the reading. I think it's going to be a good one. I hope all of my adoring fans (ok, my parents and Bruno) can make it out. I've written TWO new pieces specifically for the event. Did I mention about my new onion poem? Ok well I'm mentioning it now. Also I wrote a poem about grapefruits.
Which brings me to my latest thought:
Is my poetry too obsessive?
Huh?
Well, I've always heard the advice (and followed it's true) to "write about your obsessions". Hence, lately I've had this obsession with plants/horticulture. And I've always been obsessed with writing about sex (I can't say I'm obsessed with sex that'd be too embarressing to admit :-P). My poetry reflects these obsessions, I'm excited by the metaphors that can be teased out of these subjects. They allow me to reflect on life, gender, sexuality in a playful way - writing about prostitutes and or the idea that relationships between people have become nothing but commerce is hard. But writing about people buying grapefruits is not. You see where I'm going?
Ok... and lately I've been criticized (by several people, actually) that my writing is too... mmm... too much sexiness. Too much about the same things. I only write about sex. Why not write about something else. Blah blah blah.
Well, my answer is that I write about my obsessions. I write about my obsessions. I WRITE ABOUT MY OBSESSIONS.
LoL.
Like I'm told to. By my creative writing professors, by books on poetics, like most writers do...
I write about my obsessions.
But what troubles me - is that some of the SaMe PeOpLe that say write about your obsessions tell me now, you only write about sex.
But what if that's my obsession :-( Where's the line? Have I crossed it?
It's a valid criticism, though. I mean, I want my writing to be multi-dimensional. But I don't want to be too general. I don't want to write about things I don't care about. I don't want to HAVE to write about things I don't care about. Like, for example, one should not feel obliged to write about political poetry if you don't care about politics. Am I a shallow and silly little blonde who only likes to think about her hair, make up, the latest shoe, or looking undeniably sexy? Maybe. And maybe my poems reflect this. And maybe, just maybe, that's ok.
(throws little hissy fit)
Ok I'm done.
Ok I'm not I lied. I have a tidbit of other news to share.
I've submitted again X-D To Columbia Poetry Review and Notre Dame Review. Yay Katie you're so on a roll.
Aye, back to the thesis. Thesis... I hate you (and love you at the same time)
I feel like such a dork, lol.
Ok well as you may already know, I have a reading coming up with my fellow poetry classmates. It's on Saturday :-)
Last night in poetry class we were making the final preparations for the reading. I think it's going to be a good one. I hope all of my adoring fans (ok, my parents and Bruno) can make it out. I've written TWO new pieces specifically for the event. Did I mention about my new onion poem? Ok well I'm mentioning it now. Also I wrote a poem about grapefruits.
Which brings me to my latest thought:
Is my poetry too obsessive?
Huh?
Well, I've always heard the advice (and followed it's true) to "write about your obsessions". Hence, lately I've had this obsession with plants/horticulture. And I've always been obsessed with writing about sex (I can't say I'm obsessed with sex that'd be too embarressing to admit :-P). My poetry reflects these obsessions, I'm excited by the metaphors that can be teased out of these subjects. They allow me to reflect on life, gender, sexuality in a playful way - writing about prostitutes and or the idea that relationships between people have become nothing but commerce is hard. But writing about people buying grapefruits is not. You see where I'm going?
Ok... and lately I've been criticized (by several people, actually) that my writing is too... mmm... too much sexiness. Too much about the same things. I only write about sex. Why not write about something else. Blah blah blah.
Well, my answer is that I write about my obsessions. I write about my obsessions. I WRITE ABOUT MY OBSESSIONS.
LoL.
Like I'm told to. By my creative writing professors, by books on poetics, like most writers do...
I write about my obsessions.
But what troubles me - is that some of the SaMe PeOpLe that say write about your obsessions tell me now, you only write about sex.
But what if that's my obsession :-( Where's the line? Have I crossed it?
It's a valid criticism, though. I mean, I want my writing to be multi-dimensional. But I don't want to be too general. I don't want to write about things I don't care about. I don't want to HAVE to write about things I don't care about. Like, for example, one should not feel obliged to write about political poetry if you don't care about politics. Am I a shallow and silly little blonde who only likes to think about her hair, make up, the latest shoe, or looking undeniably sexy? Maybe. And maybe my poems reflect this. And maybe, just maybe, that's ok.
(throws little hissy fit)
Ok I'm done.
Ok I'm not I lied. I have a tidbit of other news to share.
I've submitted again X-D To Columbia Poetry Review and Notre Dame Review. Yay Katie you're so on a roll.
Aye, back to the thesis. Thesis... I hate you (and love you at the same time)
Regarding the question of how much is too much writing about your obsessions, you could use the poems you wrote about sex as a collection of poems. Seeing as how lots of poetry collections are unified according to theme, you could even collect your poems about your various obsessions and use them as sections in a greater collection that has a unifying theme of obsession. You could even go so far as to title it "Obsession" or an allusion to a famous quote about obsession.
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