The perspectives, styles, and aesthetics of the students and faculty at VCFA are so diverse, even within each genre of poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction. And trying to explain these differences seems like a futile attempt because many of our aesthetics can't be explained in a few words...
BUT
the one thing we all share (I would hope) is the obsession to write, as graduating student Ian Bodkin described in his lecture yesterday,
"...the obsession we are all bitten by and spend our entire lives trying to heal, or explain."
And it's amazing how, even when I speak with someone whose writing style is very different than mine, we both understand the obsession. And being here feeds my obsession, makes it bigger, more sprawling, more difficult to satisfy, like the universe it's expanding out of my control, which is the best thing.
Check out MudLuscious Press (AMAZING!) and go to issue 18 to read one of my poems. And then hang around and browse the other issues for some achingly beautiful and refreshing work.
Happy 2012.
To be understood. When you're trying to heal or explain - it's about having other people hear your heart, or perhaps views in order to see it in a unique standpoint. What I have come to find is that most things have already been written, songs have already been composed and poetry has been written with the same meaning, perhaps with different wording. It is amazing though because I love to read other people's work with whatever type of literature they obsess over. ;) Happy 2012 to you too!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Deb. Happy 2012 to you as well!
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