A Reason for Poetics

From Barbara Guest's essay "A Reason for Poetics" in Forces of Imagination:

"The poem is quite willing to forget its begetter and take off in its own direction. It likes to be known as spontaneous. Some poets then become firm and send out admonitory hints. Others become anxious. A few become pleased with the trickster and want to adopt it. There are moments when mistaken imageries can lead in interesting directions. Poets even try to charm the poem. We have all taken these positions." (21)


From Barbara Guest's essay "Poetry the True Fiction" in Forces of Imagination:

"Words of the poem need dimension. They desire finally--an education in space. The poet needs to understand the auditory and spatial needs of a poem to free it so that the poem can locate its own movement, so that it is freed to find its own voice, its own rhythm or accent or power." (30)