Poetry Death Match: Research (reading) vs. Experience
For the most part, we’re supposed to write what we know, but does it matter how we know it? As a rule, I think most writers stick closer to experience and supplement it with research. I most often write from a memory or an interesting observation. Research less so, and I think I could use it more.
Poets seem to pull from their cannon more than prose writers. We write about Icarus and Lot’s wife and the like so much it feels like a rite of passage. Louise Glück’s Averno and James Wright’s “Saint Judas” come through this kind of research. That’s right kids, allusions fall into this category, too. But let’s not hate on Eliot again.
Imitation is another form of research-based writing even if it’s just an exercise. Some of my better poems are imitations of Wallace Stevens and Galway Kinnel.
Reading is always research. Certain lines, structures, and cadences stick in my head and come out later. Most of my writer pals read just before they write to get in a certain mindset. There’s pressure to be well read, to keep up with what’s out there so we know what’s been done and how. I’m writing standup comedy now, so “reading” homework is watching Netflix. A friend warned me not to watch too much, that it might limit what I thought I could do. He told me to get out in a crowd and pay attention to why and when people laugh. Good advice, but I’m more in the camp that says, Know the cannon than Go do your own thing.
So the risk with research-based writing (besides seeming disingenuous) is repetition. Research is open to everybody to incorporate, so it’s not as unique and individual as experience can be. The downside of experience is that you have to have it. For me, it puts pressure on doing amazing things and meeting outrageous people when I could try to pull from stuff I’ve already done. Then I still get nervous about writing autobiographical poems.
With everything else in the world, balance is important. Writing out of research can step in for a lazy muse, and writing from experience feels natural.
A question comes to mind: Where would a person put imagination, research and experience?