I have a question for you today: how important do you feel personal identity is to a poem? 

If you suddenly found out, for example, that a great poem like Frost's "Nothing Gold Can Stay" was secretly written, not by Frost, but by a ten year old girl who immigrated illegally to the United States, would it matter?

A casual brush with any contemporary literary journal -- print or online -- will show you quite quickly that identity is the driving force behind most of the poetry currently being published and ostensibly read among the academic crowds.

Similarly, if you check Spillwords, Facebook, or virtually any other content-platform where poets drop poems, you'll see a heavy preponderance of identity poetry. Race. Sexual orientation. Political affiliation.  Religious affiliation. These are predominant themes in contemporary American poetry, with a very strong emphasis on gender and race.

Most submissions guidelines nowadays stipulate that they are specifically seeking poems that focus on identity and diversity.

For all intents and purposes, the current cultural trend is most definitely geared toward celebration of identity and even more focused on a culturally-driven form of Confessionalism. In other words, rather than anthems, most culturally identified poets are, in general, writing deeply personal poems.

To be clear, I think these are all really good things. I celebrate them right along with everyone else.  But I think it does bring up a fascinating point for discussion, which is: how crucial is personal identity to poetry, actually.

Right now, in painting, artists like Jacqueline Humphries, Laura Owens, Amy Sillman, and Charline Von He are working to dissolve notions of painterly identity --  a conscious aesthetic built around the notion that by intentionally obscuring brushstroke identity, modern painters have, in effect, developed a form of expression that is new and difficult to fully categorize. In fact, the elimination of identity categories may be the only unifying factor in their works. 

Which is better for art? For poetry?

I, of course, have many thoughts and they will be forthcoming in a proper essay on the painters mentioned above so stay tuned...

Your thoughts?

Love to hear them!

Meanwhile, check out my Seven Secrets of Poetry pdf!!!  Get your easy-to-follow  guide to making your poems stronger, more memorable, and truer to your original vision.

Order it now by clicking the button below!!   

 Consider helping me out at Patreon -- and follow me at Twitter  ​@BlackstonDan  

My Seven Secrets of Poetry pdf dropped today and, like anyone who finishes up a project, I thought of something I should have added to it!

Well, on second thought, I guess I'm rather glad that I left it  out! It's an important, if often bitter, aspect of art and poetry. Yes, I'm talking about envy. Jealousy. And competition.

And the reason I'm glad that I left this topic out of the Seven Secrets of Poetry pdf is because, even though it's a super important topic, it's not something that you can easily deal with or edit away, even figuratively speaking. There's no secret for beating it on either side.

Most of us will face some form of envy or jealousy on a regular basis throughout our careers as poets. The envy can be a feeling we have for others or it can be a feeling others have for us. In either case, there some  general points to keep in mind, that seem to hold true regardless of particulars:

• Envy is an animating emotion. People who feel it, seldom do so passively. If someone envies you, one indication might be that they are frequently an influence in your life even if you don't expect them to be.
• Envy isn't actually about wanting to be like someone else; it's about wanting to be more than them. There's a desire involved that doesn't stop at equality.
• Envy combined with love and respect is where true learning and wisdom begin.
• Envy without love and respect usually leads to bitterness and sometimes much worse.
• Envy requires massive investments of time. If you put a clock on your own feelings of intense envy and kept a careful count, you'd find that even envying one person can take up hours of your day. 
• Envy is ultimately based on yourself, not others.  What you're feeling when you envy someone is actually recognition of your own unrealized potential.

Notice that I didn't say much about how to deal with people who envy you. That's because it's a lot easier than dealing with your own feelings of envy.

If people envy you, make them feel like kings and queens in your presence and truly be an inspiration.

But, you know, watch your back.

When you envy others, try to use it as a light to your own potential. Fight to be the best poet you can be. 

Yes, poets seems to trigger a lot of envy, among themselves and among non-poets. it's a truly strange phenomenon. If you have any thoughts about it, drop me a line...

Meanwhile, check out my Seven Secrets of Poetry pdf!!!   Consider helping me out at Patreon -- and follow me at Twitter  ​@BlackstonDan