----------------------------------------------------------------------

On Poetry's Form and Meaning

As a new poet, I am still trying to find the
best form to communicate what I want to
say through my poetry. I find Poet Ron
Silliman's thinking on this issue to be quite
helpful.

Silliman says that meanings in poetry are
found in the connections between words
and between sentences. The simplicity of his
writings' forms makes those connections
more visible and helps him to position his
work so that the issues raised by each
sentence are overshadowed by formal
considerations. He takes this posture in
order to illuminate the particulars of
content and the reader determines the
nature and meaning of their relations.
This happens on the large and small scales.

Form is nothing more than a confrontation with content
___________________________________________________

Content is nothing more than a confrontation with form

-------------------------------------------------------------------------