The Apostrophe Blog
Is it, perhaps, the most famous cursive signature in American history? And, now that I think about it—and given all the other handwritten flourishes that grace the documents created by the so-called founding fathers—why was John Hancock the one who had his penmanship celebrated above and beyond all the rest? The history books offer something of an explanation but who knows if it is even true. That when Hancock signed the Declaration of Independence he did so in “a bold hand, in a conspicuous manner, and rose from his seat, pointing to it, and said, ‘There, John Bull can read my name without spectacles, he may double his reward, and I put his at defiance. ’”
In the world of poetry, we also have signatures. In my own work, I have found that figuring out your individual poetry signature is can be a useful exploration, a helpful way to gauge your personal aesthetic, poetic preferences and predilections, likes and dislikes. So, over the years, that is what I have done: create my definition of what my poetic signature.
I like to bend the meanings of words. I like to shapeshift words from one part of speech to another. I often find my (final) poem in the language culled from free-writing and journals. Previously I wrote narrative that savored, slowed, and meandered with the pace of the lyric; now with poetry, I seek to write lyric that contains the readable, enjoyable, storytelling momentum of narrative. But wait: that is not true all of the time either. People who have read my work say that I have a very distinctive voice and it shouldn’t be smashed or honed or downsized out of me. That I celebrate unusal images. In fact, the language itself. That I see poetry as sculpture and construct interesting architectures. that my strengths are musicality, range, leaps, word and sound associations, echoes.
What I am doing, what I know to to do: Craft syntax into musical language. Find the poem embedded in the freewrite. Marry the orderly of the baroque with the freewheeling of jazz. Celebrate Vvibrancy, originality, surprises, risk-taking along with the leaking of my associative mind, a sieve with its connotation, denotation, etymology, syntax, syllable, phrase, fragement, sentence.
My free associations whirlwind, get cut up into collage. I turn recording angel for the landscape I hail from. I privilege chewy words in a mouth—their utterance, their dense imagery. My craft and intention show at every poem’s seams. My deliberate linebreaks to make otherwise straightforward sentences mysterious and strange. And I also pay attention to shapes—words, spelling line length, stanza shape, symmetries. And deploy white space to reduce clutter. My sparingly used verbs end up as undecorated carriers for objects. Brought to the foreground? Sonics, patterns, hijinks, mystery, amplitude, quiet, boom. Language mutations. Wit with a straightforward gaze. Double meanings, veiled meanings, veiled threats, incantations. The poetry beat, indeed, goes on.
The public domain photo above is a stern view of the destroyer USS JOHN HANCOCK (DD-981) anchored during a port visit.
Interests: Reading, writing, not arithmetic. The art and craft of poetry. Photography. Vegetable and flower gardening especially heirloom bulbs and dahlias. Movies in real theatres. Theatre on real stages. Art in real galleries. Crossword puzzles and, of course, Wordle. Singer-songwriters like Aimee Mann and Patti Griffin. All kinds of music especially 1930s jazz. Venice, Italy! The Dude abides.
- Writing in Form: A Narrative Poem in Syllabics - September 17, 2024
- The Individuality of a Poetry Signature - September 12, 2024
- Published Online after Being in Print: “And I will tell you a story” - September 5, 2024
