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Charles Simic's
advice on Writing Poetry
from Marie Kane (bio)
www.mariekane.com
A
few things to keep in mind while sitting down to write
a poem :
1.
Don't tell the readers what they already know about life.
2. Don't assume you're the only one in the world who suffers.
3. Some of the greatest poems in the language are sonnets
and poems not many lines longer than that, so don't overwrite.
4. The use of images, similes and metaphors make poems
concise. Close your eyes, and let your imagination tell
you what to do.
5. Say the words you are writing aloud and let your ear
decide what word comes next.
6. What you are writing down is a draft that will need
additional tinkering, perhaps many months, and even years
of tinkering.
7. Remember, a poem is a time machine you are constructing,
a vehicle that will allow someone to travel in their own
mind, so don't be surprised if it takes a while to get
all its engine parts properly working.
8. At least since Emerson and Whitman, there's a cult
of experience in American poetry. Our poets, when one
comes right down to it, are always saying: This is what
happened to me. This is what I saw and felt. Truth, they
never get tired of reiterating, is not something that
already exists in the world, but something that needs
to be rediscovered almost daily.
Charles
Simic:
Charles Simic was born on May 9, 1938, in Belgrade, Yugoslavia,
where he had a traumatic childhood during World War II.
In 1954 he emigrated from Yugoslavia with his mother and
brother to join his father in the United States. They
lived in and around Chicago until 1958.
His first poems were published in 1959, when he was twenty-one.
In 1961 he was drafted into the U.S. Army, and in 1966
he earned his Bachelor's degree from New York University
while working at night to cover the costs of tuition.
His first full-length collection of poems, What the Grass
Says, was published the following year. Since then he
has published more than sixty books in the U.S. and abroad,
twenty titles of his own poetry among them, including
That Little Something (Harcourt, 2008), My Noiseless Entourage
(2005); Selected Poems: 1963-2003 (2004), for which he
received the 2005 International Griffin Poetry Prize;
The Voice at 3:00 AM: Selected Late and New Poems (2003);
Night Picnic (2001); The Book of Gods and Devils (2000);
and Jackstraws (1999), which was named a Notable Book
of the Year by the New York Times.
His other books of poetry include Walking the Black Cat
(1996), which was a finalist for the National Book Award;
A Wedding in Hell (1994); Hotel Insomnia (1992); The World
Doesn't End: Prose Poems (1990), for which he received
the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry; Selected Poems: 1963-1983
(1990); and Unending Blues (1986).
In his essay "Poetry and Experience," Simic
wrote: "At least since Emerson and Whitman, there's
a cult of experience in American poetry. Our poets, when
one comes right down to it, are always saying: This is
what happened to me. This is what I saw and felt. Truth,
whixh they never get tired of reiterating, is not something
that already exists in the world, but something that needs
to be rediscovered almost daily."
Simic has also published numerous translations of French,
Serbian, Croatian, Macedonian, and Slovenian poetry, and
is the author of several books of essays, including Orphan
Factory. He has edited several anthologies, including
an edition of The Best American Poetry in 1992.
About his work, a reviewer for the Harvard Review said,
"There are few poets writing in America today who
share his lavish appetite for the bizarre, his inexhaustible
repertoire of indelible characters and gestures ... Simic
is perhaps our most disquieting muse."
Simic was appointed the fifteenth Poet Laureate Consultant
in Poetry in 2007. About the appointment, Librarian of
Congress James H. Billington said, "The range of
Charles Simic's imagination is evident in his stunning
and unusual imagery. He handles language with the skill
of a master craftsman, yet his poems are easily accessible,
often meditative and surprising. He has given us a rich
body of highly organized poetry with shades of darkness
and flashes of ironic humor."
"I am especially touched and honored to be selected
because I am an immigrant boy who didn't speak English
until I was 15," responded Simic after being named
Poet Laureate.
Simic was chosen to receive the Academy Fellowship in
1998, and elected a Chancellor of The Academy of American
Poets in 2000. He has received numerous awards, including
fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the MacArthur
Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts, and
was elected to The American Academy of Arts and Letters
in 1995.
Most recently, he was announced as the recipient of the
2007 Wallace Stevens Award by the Academy of American
Poets. Simic is Emeritus Professor of the University of
New Hampshire where he has taught since 1973.
Here's
a poem by Charles Simic:
The
White Room
The
obvious is difficult
To prove. Many prefer
The hidden. I did, too.
I listened to the trees.
They
had a secret
Which they were about to
Make known to me-
And then didn't.
Summer
came. Each tree
On my street had its own
Scheherazade. My nights
Were a part of their wild
Storytelling.
We were
Entering dark houses,
Always more dark houses,
Hushed and abandoned.
There
was someone with eyes closed
On the upper floors.
The fear of it, and the wonder,
Kept me sleepless.
The
truth is bald and cold,
Said the woman
Who always wore white.
She didn't leave her room.
The
sun pointed to one or two
Things that had survived
The long night intact.
The simplest things,
Difficult
in their obviousness.
They made no noise.
It was the kind of day
People described as "perfect."
Gods
disguising themselves
As black hairpins, a hand-mirror,
A comb with a tooth missing?
No! That wasn't it.
Just
things as they are,
Unblinking, lying mute
In that bright light-
And the trees waiting for the night
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