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I don't write a lot of poetry, but I'm no stranger to epiphany.
I might be sitting out in the garage, reducing a pack of cigarettes to a pile of ashes and butts when one hits me. Most of the time, the epiphany will revolve around some problem I'm having in some field that I find interesting. For example, I might be wrestling with the problem of explaining how it was that I beat a stronger-rated go player convincingly in my last game. It is a problem for me, as (by the logic of 'ratings') I ought to lose uphill games more often than I do, and I ought to win downhill games slightly more often than I do. Out of this brown study, I might get an epiphany, e.g., "Aha! I'm playing where they are trying to win---and that gives me advantage when I am playing uphill, and disadvantage when I am playing downhill!"
That epiphany will not produce a poem.
The context of epiphany matters, and should have an effect on the shape worn by epiphany.
Some epiphany DOES culminate in poetry, even for me. Most of the time, it seems most natural to produce a diagram and a prosaic accompanying comment, to summarize---and record!---an insight/epiphany. And most of the time, that's what I have to show for a moment of 'aha!'
Considering the nature of my habits of thought, I'm surprised I've written as many poems as I have.
So why am I writing this? Because I'm reading murky poems in the stream that, to me, seem to be taking up space where the author might instead have written a very good essay, to better effect.
I might be sitting out in the garage, reducing a pack of cigarettes to a pile of ashes and butts when one hits me. Most of the time, the epiphany will revolve around some problem I'm having in some field that I find interesting. For example, I might be wrestling with the problem of explaining how it was that I beat a stronger-rated go player convincingly in my last game. It is a problem for me, as (by the logic of 'ratings') I ought to lose uphill games more often than I do, and I ought to win downhill games slightly more often than I do. Out of this brown study, I might get an epiphany, e.g., "Aha! I'm playing where they are trying to win---and that gives me advantage when I am playing uphill, and disadvantage when I am playing downhill!"
That epiphany will not produce a poem.
The context of epiphany matters, and should have an effect on the shape worn by epiphany.
Some epiphany DOES culminate in poetry, even for me. Most of the time, it seems most natural to produce a diagram and a prosaic accompanying comment, to summarize---and record!---an insight/epiphany. And most of the time, that's what I have to show for a moment of 'aha!'
Considering the nature of my habits of thought, I'm surprised I've written as many poems as I have.
So why am I writing this? Because I'm reading murky poems in the stream that, to me, seem to be taking up space where the author might instead have written a very good essay, to better effect.