Here me out.
I attend a virtual workshop on a Friday afternoon and we were talking about this during our discussion of No More Grandma Poems by Yolanda Wisher.
It's an interesting concept, right? Can we have too many poems about a theme or an event or a specific person? I must admit, last year, I thought the answer was yes.
To be clear: I know that I'm a repeat offender. What do I write about if not mental health and my nephew and my grandparents? I don't write about much else if I'm being brutally honest. And last year, I was feeling like a bit of a fraud. A one trick pony, if you will. How many times can I say 'I miss my Gran'?
However, I took Sierra Demulder's 'Turn The Crystal, Shine The Light' class which is centred on starting a collection/chapbook on a specific theme. Grief, Depression, Bugs, Dogs, whatever. The idea being that if you shine light at a crystal, it will refract in a certain way. But if you turn the crystal slightly, the light will shine differently.
In this respect, Sierra was telling us that you can write a billion different poems about a specific thing as long as you approach it in new and interesting ways. I enjoyed that analogy a lot.
From a writing perspective, I don't care how many poems I write about my depression or my grandparents or anything. But on a broader scale, is there a theme or event where there are actually too many poems?
There's not a right answer, of course. I'm just curious if anyone's ever read a poem and you think 'oh, another poem about [blank]'.
Hope this all makes sense!
Hmm…there are definitely “cliches” in poetry…whether they be cliched topics or cliche motifs. However, I think you can write about a cliche topic in a new way or in a way that makes the poem stand on its own.
let’s be honest, if you really
think hard about it, how many songs or stories or poems released in the last 10 years are truly original? We’ve been writing about love and grief and trauma and gratitude for decades, maybe centuries. What matters is how we write about these topics.
Your poem about your grandma is different from my poem about my grandma. And from Adam’s poem about his grandma and so on. What makes your poem worth reading is writing it in a way that is original and honest to your individual experience more so than the topic itself being original.
I don’t think anything is really original at its core. Good songwriters will often say “we’re all stealing from each other.“ I think that is also true for poetry and nothing to be ashamed of. We all write about the same things… Your experience is unique to you and therefore it is valid :)
Hi
I don't think you can have too many poems about the same thing as long as, like you said, the subject is approached from novel perspectives.
What I do see too much of though is "prose vomit" .
Train of thought prose about how hard the speakers life is or how f#@ked the world is.
If I don't read anymore of that in my life I'll be happy.
I feel you on this! Overthinking takes place a lot in my time writing. I even go to lengths where I don't even use the same word; cloud, sun, rain, moonlight, and so many more in the next 3 poems. Even the same verbs. It is very hard not using the same spice and creating new ones, but its definitely great practice I find. Finding different ways that crystal can shine. I think it is ok to have many poems over the same thing. We don't feel one emotion in one way. Explore each level of that emotion. It is kind of like when we keep our favorite poems to read in the future because it could hit you in another way on a different day. One emotion can have a lot to offer.
Personally, not using the same words for 3-5 poems is key for me, but will still recycle down the line of a collection at some point!