7. On Poetics and Discourse

     A poem isn’t just language. A poem uses language in a certain way but poetry is much more than language per se. Poetry has an aesthetic element, a shape like sculpture. And poetry is a form of communication; it has something to say. Poetry is a way of speaking, whether it is the poet talking to their inner self in the solitude of the creative process, or to an audience of readers or listeners. Poetry also conveys knowledge. Poetry is one of the fundamental and ancient means through which we, as humans, share knowledge on a universal level. Poetry is visionary. It is through poetry that the collective or the cosmic becomes individualized.

     Language isn’t the sum total of poetry, just as sex isn’t the sum total of love.

     I draw from several sources in my poetry: the natural world; the sensual and erotic; the mythological; the spiritual; and the everyday, via personal experience.

     The poem makes meaning of an event that the event doesn’t always make. The poet’s personal life isn’t the essence in poetry—what matters is how the imagination uses personal experience.

     Art takes an individual’s life and distils it, gives it order and shape. That’s why throughout human history, we have made art—to give order to the randomness and chaos of our lives. Art reconciles the chaos of experience with the inner balance and harmony that we need to connect to the cosmos and to the universal. Poetry is an integral activity in the history of being human.

Copyright by Carolyn Zonailo: www.carolynzonailo.com, 2004