A Poet's Manifesto

Colleen Abel, in the Ploughshares online Reading site, posted an article “The Poet’s Manifesto: Three Ars Poeticas” (ars poetica is Latin for “the art of poetry” and is a phrase taken from the ancient Roman lyric poet, Horace). She talks about how art exhibits will usually include and “Artist Statement.” When my daughter set out in the art world with her own exhibits and curating some art shows in town, I became aware of those artist statements myself.

Abel compares the ars poetica to the artist statement, and shares three different poems in which each poet presents their own ars poetica.  I like the concept of “artist statement” being applied to the poetic works, but I like even more the phrase in the title of Abel’s essay: “the poet’s manifesto.”

As I read her essay, I was reminded of another ars poetica, this one by Robert Graves in his short story, “The Shout.” Graves stated that he wrote it to illustrate how disruptive poetry can be to the poet’s domestic life. I first came across the story when I found Graves’ book, Occupation Writer, in a used book shop in Sausalito, California. “The Shout” was one of the stories in that volume, and a film adaptation was done in 1978 starring John Hurt, Alan Bates and Susanna York. The story depicts a man whose life is completely disrupted by a visitor. The visitor was an Englishman who had learned some shamanic practices from an Australian Aborigine.* 

Another thing I was reminded of was my own ars poetica that I wrote in 1980. “Sonnet Concerning Poetic Vision,” was one of my early poems written shortly after I began to take the poetic endeavor seriously. It was among the poems I read at my very first public poetry reading which some friends and I organized at a coffee shop in San Francisco. After that period, I put the poem away and have not read it in any of my public readings since.

I was prompted to revisit the poem after reading Colleen Abel’s essay, realizing that I had my own artist statement, my own poet’s manifesto, and my own ars poetica written at the outset of my poetic endeavors. Upon reading it again, I was not embarrassed (you know how we writers can be when we go back and re-read our early works). I was even pleased with the prescience in declaring that in spite of the travail, poetry instills “wonderment to guide the soul along an unsure path.” In the years that have ensued, I can say that poetry has continued to be a wondrous guide along an unsure path. 

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*See also my essay, “Dylan Thomas and Hank Williams: They Shared Their Art and Died Young.”



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