Opening Up Doors,
Breaking Through
The Glass
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No matter what a writer says, he always inhabits the writing, there's no hiding in it, and whether he casts himself as an ax murderer or a saint, it's a fair bet there's a little of both within him because the only way to write convincingly so the ear picks up no dissonance, is by pulling out those parts of the self that can breathe the fumes and live there.
For me the question is moot whether or not what a
poet writes is autobiographical---all voices live intimately in the host and come from nowhere else. Sometimes they're disguised as a different gender, race or age, but who among us has so immutable a self there haven't been countless selves within our own fantasies? We should never fear that someone may see us for who we are: if we're writers or poets, they already have.
Maybe readers are unable to articulate it, but this is why the question-- is that a true story? --is asked over and over again. The reader already knows the answer: they're ALL true stories, and I believe that's what paralyzes so many poets to the point where we cling to rhyme schemes, structure and stilted lines. It somehow feels safer within a structure. Maybe if there's more props to duck behind we'll be invisible and honestly, sometimes this method works, but oh, the writing is stiff and uninviting and if that's the case, why write at all?
If we want to be able to put pen to paper and create in ways
that move and sometimes frighten-- sometimes shock the reader into a place where there's a living world through living words, then we must not be afraid to throw open the doors and break through the glass.
To be vulnerable, to be open to criticism and speculation is the leap we must make because really, in the end, what does it matter? The miracle is that someone is able to take patterns of black characters, spill them onto a page like dicers will throw the bones and watch them dance their sevens, elevens and
Snake Eyes. To really feel the toss- to put our wrists into it, dip deep inside and pull those words right out of the organs still dripping, and enable the reader, like the shamans of old,
to see the real messages~ hidden, until
drawn through living tissue.
....To let our hearts pump right out loud, we mustn't hide.
..There's no hiding anyway so we must use our shamans to reveal characters who live authentic lives, albeit inside us. If we write, those suckers are scratching to get out, so we should trust them to be seductive when they open
their little mouths
to sing or hiss or howl; in a way, they are our 'tribe'- our
children- let them play, and for heaven's sake,
trust them- and let them have their say.
