Posted by Robert R. Cobb on March 17, 2001 at 10:37:54:
Elsewhere in LPT, within the section called "ART," you will find a sub-section called, "Poet's Lie."
I, as well as other poets, have some personal poetry to be found. Check it out!
The following comes from a review, of a review, of a review, with permission to be used for the purposes
of discussion here. The original source is a 1992 interview with Katharine Coles in_Weber Studies_. This is further
reviewed by Edward Byrne, as a review of the American poet, Mark Strand's_The Weather of Words_, in which he quotes Strand
from the original Coles' interview, speaking on this subject:
"American poetry has always been a poetry of personal testimony. More so than other poetries. So the idea of 'the confessional'
was misguided from the beginning." He also speaks of "autobiographical poetry," seemingly suggesting it is very difficult for
poetry to be truly "autobiographical." Byrne quotes the following Strand comment in his review: "There's a certain point, where
you're writing autobiographical stuff, where you don't want to misrepresent yourself. It would be dishonest. And, at least in
poetry, you should feel free to lie. That is, not to lie, but to imagine what you want, to follow the direction of the poem. If
you're writing autobiographically, there's something dictating the shape of the poem other than the imagination. You lose the freedom
to investigate."--Mark Strand, --Edward Byrne
Trust me on this, speaking for myself, poets do, sometimes at least, tell lies. It's called, "poetic license."
--Robert R. Cobb