How does a poem begin?
What is a good poem?
A good poem is one that seeks to understand something about the world. For me, a poem begins in the body, from the ghost of a moment that I have experienced. It begins with a question that needs to be answered. Usually, it’s “why do I feel this way about this thing”. I’ve come to accept that if I’m struggling to answer a question, perhaps others are struggling with the same thought and maybe it’s even worth writing a poem about it. Often a poem of mine will begin as a character study of a person in my life and morph into a philosophical debate between myself and them with me as narrator. The intimate relationships in my life often act as a kind of springboard to considering a question about why things are the way they are.
A good poem is generous, it gives freely of the poet’s knowledge and perspective. In order to impart that generosity, a good poem must be accessible and not confusing to the reader. When a poem is accessible a reader can feel like they trust them to keep going, to read more of that particular writer’s work. It is in the poem’s beginning in which trust is established, which allows the reader to let go and feel safe to inhabit the world of the poem.
I think that trust is especially important when doing the work of engaging with work that is outside of what a reader expects to find on the page. If I had to describe a shift that has taken place over the last ten years in my own poetry, I would say it’s a shift towards trying to make the reader trust me. If they can trust me, maybe they can relate to the feelings centered in the poems I write. Perhaps they can even trust me enough to be coaxed into exploring difficult feelings about the tensions in their lives.
So much of what I do as a writer acts against a writing life, whether it is raising a family, going to work, cleaning the house, feeding myself. I’m preoccupied right now with the question of how poetry can help integrate all the various parts of my life to help me feel more at peace with existence. I think we look to poetry to help us understand life more deeply. If a poem can answer a question that the reader has, I think it’s a good poem.
Maggie Burton lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. Her debut book of poetry, Chores, won the 2024 Griffin Canadian First Book Prize, was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award, and received a silver medal from the Independent Publisher Book Awards. Recent writing can be found in Riddle Fence.
