<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the introduction to his book Why Poetry<\/em>, poet Matthew Zapruder focuses on the perennial question\nof why people have such difficulty understanding poetry. The difficulties and\nfrustrations are summed up in the question: \u201cWhy don’t poets just say what they\nmean?\u201d I’ve encountered this question many times over the years, but what hit\nme this time was the parallel to common reactions to dreams. People are as\npuzzled by dreams as they are by poems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This is not the first time this parallel has struck\nme. One night, after hearing Robert Bly speak out the lines of Federico Garcia\nLorca’s poem, \u201cCasida of the Rose,\u201d I had a dream. In the dream, a piece of\npaper fell out of Jung’s Memories,\nDreams, Reflections<\/em>. On the paper was written these lines:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\npoem wants a poem<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\ndream wants a dream. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Note that the dream lines are not about the meaning of\npoems or dreams, nor about interpreting or understanding dreams or poems, but\nasserting that dreams and poems are related through desire<\/em>. The emphasis is not on “our” desiring, but on the\npoem’s desire for a poem and a dream’s desire for a dream. Of course, it is not the poem on the page\ndesiring, but the source<\/em> of the poem,\nthe deep imaginal source, that source, like the dream-maker, is desiring a poem\nin return. More than likely the\npoem-maker and dream-maker share a common geography in the deep imaginal realm.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Note that I am not talking here about poems written\nentirely from a conscious standpoint. These poems will not convey the\nmysterious desire that inhabits poems from a deeper place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Note that Zapruder\u2019s title is Why Poetry<\/em>. Note the absence of a question mark in the title. He’s\nnot going to be asking this question. He is going to be providing his answer<\/em>. \nWhen I have finished reading his text, I’ll return with another blog\npost and see what relevance his work has to Why\nDreams<\/em>. No question mark. That may become my text. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the introduction to his book Why Poetry, poet Matthew Zapruder focuses on the perennial question of why people have such difficulty understanding poetry. The difficulties and frustrations are summed up in the question: \u201cWhy don’t poets just say what they mean?\u201d I’ve encountered this question many times over the years, but what hit me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coming-soon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":622,"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621\/revisions\/622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ralockhart.com\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}