I believe poems have to stand or fall on their own merits. Describing their origin can certainly add interest, but if a poem can’t be understood on its own, it probably isn’t speaking clearly enough. I have been accustomed to sending out poems into the world on their own. I’ve had two recent experiences that suggest this is not how others do things.
The first case concerns my poem “In the Service of Beauty” published by Muse, a journal of Riverside City College, Riverside, CA. The poem is in the voice of Artemisia Gentileschi, the painter.of 17th century Italy. I received an email from students asking thirteen questions about the work and my ideas. When their professor told them that was too much to ask, the questions were reduced to three, questions about my thoughts on femininity, the influence of the women’s movement, how that had influenced my writing of the poem.
I wrote back that “femininity” is a construct of patriarchy and I don’t use the word any more. I made general answers to the other questions, but what did this have to do with my poem, I wondered.
Not long after, I came up against a request to include with my submission a ‘Positionality Statement” “Please state how your identity as a writer serves the content of this piece, if it speaks to a specific component of your identity or intersectionality.” I conclude that academic discourse is doing its best, once again, to destroy our language. Of course I have a position, in relation to all the variables of class, race, gender, etc., etc. But how does a person have positionality or intersectionality? – we are not abstractions.
I will not submit to a journal that wants me to work as seriously on a statement as I do on the poems. The poem is what the reader makes of it.
freethoughtandmetaphor 