Peter Becnel

Some Words

            The first thing that I learned about writing and creating poetry is that because a poem is composed of so few words, the piece must be exceptionally concentrated. In poetry a word is worth a thousand pictures; or as Minot says in the text, poets are concerned with “creating density by implying far more than is stated directly”. (Minot 1) This particular effect is enhanced by word arrangement and association. With poetry it is possible to draw connections between previously unrelated ideas and images through arrangement. The musical-phonetic qualities of poetry are created by arrangement, and are greatly heightened by removing what I call—literary connective tissue.  

            Because poems employ “a heightened use of images” they are more similar to actual experiences—rather than telling a reader what to think about the assembly of images, the reader is forced to create connections and thus derive meaning from the images on his own. (Minot 1) The argument could be made that poetry is very much like cinema because each medium employs the use of images to create the meaning of the work. This logic is flawed, however, because images in movies are actual visual images they much more heavily stimulate the audience’s emotions rather than their intellect; also movies are a combination of visual images and connective-tissue, or dialogue.

Because images in poetry are presented without connective-tissue, seemingly unrelated can be connected through juxtaposition or phonetic association. When writing poetry it is essential that the writer is in possession of the ability to create material representations of abstractions. It is then necessary for the writer to describe these material representations appropriately to create the tone of the piece and the meaning of the stanza. An example of this from my own work occurs in the second stanza, where I am very much concerned with reconciling technological and industrial innovation with nature: “Massive metal hummingbird wings drive Rumplestiltskin’s sewing machines.”

I will use the same quote from my own work as an example of the notion that I presented earlier about density of poetry. I chose hummingbird wings because they are among the most delicate and conceivably beautiful objects in nature. Because this is a poem, selection is everything; I do not even take the entire bird. Rather I snatch off the wings and make them massive, then I render them out of metal to demonstrate the elegance and complexity of the mechanisms of a cigarette factory. This image is especially appropriate because the function of the incredible, rapid pace at which a hummingbird flaps its wings is precision and balance; which enables the bird to eat from various flowers, causing pollination.

 I use a variety of reproduction-related images in the piece because I want to convey the prolific qualities of the factory. The use of Rumplestiltskin is apparent—a creature capable of spinning hay into gold. However, I wish for this reference to be taken in its full implications, the moral of the Brother’s Grimm Tale intact. Upgrading old Rumple from a spinning wheel to a sewing machine follows the theme of the incredible industrial creations produced by the minds of men—the sewing machine is a precision instrument that has saved countless hours of human labor.  

Having revisers read over a poem is of great value. By the time I finished my work, I had worked so hard on word selection and association that I was practically incapable of revising structure and punctuation. Paul was a huge help to me because he helped me realize that my poem was over-punctuated. Commas, commas, commas, the piece had become laborious to read. When I read the poem aloud to myself after receiving Paul’s comments, I realized that I was denying much of the punctuation; I subsequently eliminated several commas to improve the flow of the piece.

Another recommendation from Paul was a line that I had originally written: “mother music box drones no cover.” His criticism was that music boxes were not generally thought to be covered. This was not the intended meaning of the line. I intended to use it to open the stanza about the harmonious interaction between varieties of complex mechanical devices—as if the reader were watching the complex interactions between the working mechanisms in a music box. I changed the line so that it would be more direct, and create its intended purpose—“mother music box drones, mechanical symphony fully exposed”. This line is far more direct, and it better communicates my intention.

As far as I can remember, this is the third poem that I have ever written. I have quite a few collections of poetry around my apartment, Wilde, Elliot, Pound, Hughes, Yeats, Ginsberg, Poe, Whitman, and a compilation of The Greatest Poems in the English Language that contains a wide variety from Coleridge to Dickinson. In preparation for writing my poem I thought about my personal favorites. I read much of my Hughes collection aloud to my son, and The Wasteland. I spent time thinking about my favorite songs, and the most elegant verses I could remember, the ones that impacted me the most. But, after all of that, I did not have a poem until I sat down and started scribbling and dribbling onto paper. Most of the time I woke up the next morning and what I saw was a mess; but finally one day I woke up and read the stanza I had written the night before, and I finally had a starting point—something I could work with.