is a really poor way to start a blog/discussion/thought process about titles, but maybe that is why I want to think about them and my issues working with them.
I don’t know that I have ever written the title of a poem before writing the poem. I have written essays and/or short stories (on a few rare unpublishable occasions) where a title came to me first and then I proceeded to write the piece to go with it.
But see that statement is why I beg issue with titles and poetry. A title, for me, seems to lead me to a particular path-a particular expectation-a subject let’s say. Because of my tendency to read into whatever I am reading in reference to the title, I tend-now-not to really note the title when I am reading poems and other writing. I try to approach the poem from the first line (unless the title leads into the first line and then I have to go back) and then I read the title afterwards and see if it “works.”
Case in point for me. I was reading a collection of essays/memoir by Jo Ann Beard entitled “Boys of My Youth” for a course. SO my reading was already geared to thinking about non-fiction and how a book of non-fiction is structured. As I read I kept thinking–ok how is the title functioning here?, how do these pieces fit together?–and I found myself sometimes distressed because the essays were more about the women in the writers life than the men or at least those are the characters I was more effected by. This isn’t true of all the essays but overall I found myself wondering why did she pick that title?
So, what should I do? I was revising some poems today and one of them now has a long title, as do a few other poems I have that are old because I think the titles give not just a hint of subject but also set up tone. I’m trying to find a new way to approach my understanding of titles and my use of them.
Any thoughts? Any books/articles/psyciatric help I could get to aid me?
Monday.
oh and btw click through on my flickr link if you get the chance to see the art project my husband finished this weekend. Now my guest room as some pizazz! Now I just need some guests.
Here I sit typing away on my new HP TABLET PC, no less! Looking forward to breaking it in.
Other places I should be? Just tell me.
