談寫詩

談寫詩

詩的內容是為分享人們的靈視而表達的，那些沒有內在的生命逼自己說真話，或只在和氣有禮的氣氛下所寫成的詩，這類平庸作品的蔓延將會扼殺其他的東西，它使人背離詩的嚴肅性，卻往往讚賞了閨閣軟弱與不關痛癢的作品。假如它是重要的作品，它一定打擾別人的安寧，最好的詩人永遠不是 “好好先生”，他們常威嚇我們既定的生活型態與自以為是，引領我們擴展到未來，而非緩和我們安於現狀；重要的詩常像遠方搖曳的星辰，神秘如銀河的星體，它會改變我們固定的秩序，而溫和一類的詩往往只是一片荒地。

詩必須經常體現時間的消逝，必須從一件經驗移動到另一件經驗，從一種心情移動到另一種心情，在衝突或矛盾中達成某種解決為止。詩很少由一種單純的暗示組成，它必需不斷的移動、轉彎、顛覆，變成另外的事物。

詩的書寫涉及時間，因為一首短詩也許常常是寫了又重寫，耗費經年，也或者，偶爾在實際上費去長時間的生命經驗，然後落筆紙上，只需短短數十分鐘或幾小時；不過，根本上，詩的絕妙處在於它小小的篇幅，它所佔的短短時間——在僅僅六、七行的一段—— 卻能擁有如此漫長的生活經驗，卻能擁有如此實際的歲月才能結束的故事，把人的一生壓縮成一種頓悟。

On writing poems

Poem is to share people’s vision. Those who without the inner power, which is necessary to compel to speak the truth or those who write the poems only in an ambience of decorum creating mediocre work that would strangle other things. Work like this is far departed from the soberness of poetry, and usually contrarily appreciate the feminized and feeble works. An important work must disturb the tranquility of its readers. The finest poets are never the gentle ones. They often intimidate our existence and self-approbation; also lead us to expand into the future, rather than only to ease the status quo. Important poem may frequently like a distant, wavering star, mysterious as a quasar, they change the fixed orders, while moderate ones create wasteland.

Poetry must always reflect the passage of time. It must move from one experience to another experience, move from one mood to another, and reach a resolution between the conflicts and the contradictions. Poetry is rarely composed by a simple hint, it is necessary for constant moving, turning and subverting, and then it becomes another object.

Poetry writing involves time. It could frequently consume years to write and rewrite a short poem, or it might substantially takes a long life experience at times, but takes only some ten minutes or hours to realize the writing on the paper. Fundamentally, however, the wonderfulness of a poem is at its small length and only requires a short period of time – in a paragraph of only six or seven lines – it is able to contain such a long life experience, to own such actual years to complete a story and to compress one’s life into enlightenment.

by Catherine Yen 2012.