...and I love it. Love trying to connect the (seemingly) disparate or more generally, being autodidact. Reading Harold Bloom on Stevens in Stevens and Moore, and the ideas of ethos/pathos/logos is really resonating with me. He defines them in a way that is weird, initially, but it begins to make sense and essentially breaks down into limits/boundaries, potential/movement, and recognition/actualization.
I've been consciously trying to work some Bloom into poems to give me a better hang of it, and I think this knowledge deepens how I can work through relationships (or, I think as mentioned earlier, maybe my "main" theme is binaries). Binaries are all about ethos--limits. The liminal spaces that are physically manifested like shorelines or walls or mentally presented like self-doubt and wonderment. I think I like working so much in binaries because I feel there is so much to be learned/gained in this "middle" and pushing "outward." I think it also allows me deeper reflection onto my own feelings, what "gray areas" they touch and how they may be reconciled/resolved into something more firm. I just want to ensure this resolution isn't something "extreme"--just because there are two sides of the wall doesn't mean both can't be walked equally or that the wall shouldn't be used as balance beam.
So:
-Theory in poems without beating theory over reader's head = fun; interesting; positive adjective x.
-Bloom's specific idea of ethos/limits = what I play with in poems--I now have another point of reference for what I "do."
-Glenn
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