09-09-2013, 11:00 AM
#7 – Don’t tell us everything. Leave something to the imagination, in fact; leave MOST of it to our imagination. Anything the reader must supply in order to parse your language and read what you are trying to convey is the part of the poem that speaks to them personally. If you want your work to connect with your readers, the best way to do that is to ensure that your readers invest themselves into your work. One of the things that makes poetry magical is what is not said, what is inferred or implied by the words. Resist the urge to ‘explain’ in your poems.
while i agree in general with everything said. i was perturbed by #7 isn't there a point where the reader is creating the poetry and not the poet. shouldn't there be just enough ambiguity to make the reader think or have something work on more that 1 level but not so much as to cloud the intent of the poet?
while i agree in general with everything said. i was perturbed by #7 isn't there a point where the reader is creating the poetry and not the poet. shouldn't there be just enough ambiguity to make the reader think or have something work on more that 1 level but not so much as to cloud the intent of the poet?