Monday 5 October 2020

Tariq Luthun : part five

How does a poem begin?

I think the genesis of poetry starts with life. Living, engaging with the world around you, and so on, are the fuel for good stories to be born. But, I think once that’s established, there is a more prevalent starting point: a poem begins with desire.

I know that’s a rather vague answer, but I don’t know of any other way to quantify it. Now, that desire can be for something like attention, or it can be something more internally focused. In my case, poetry is born out of a desire to heal – whether that healing ends up serving myself or others, I try not to dictate. But, it starts with a desire that is entirely my own, and from there the poem blossoms. My desires then shift as the poem matures, and then – once I’m healed (or getting there) – I desire for it to help heal others (or at least move them in some small way).

A poem can do immense work and never see the light of day. The desire it helps us process is a beautiful thing to interrogate because while the poem may never leave the confines of our notebooks, the impact it leaves on our living, moving, feeling bodies arcs the way we interact with the world we live in. And, if living is the genesis of poetry, then the actions we do or do not take – and how – set of an entirely unknowable chain of life experiences and, subsequently, poems.

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