Title: On Point of View And Poetry

Form: Poetry

Author: Luke Meyer

Artist: Luke Meyer

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People generally advise against writing POV poetry when the POV is not your own. People want to know your own experience, not your fictional feelings that must have to be ascribable to someone else, or worse to someone who doesn’t exist. I guess it’s true that people primarily expect poetry to be something real. Indeed most poets try to write poetry only this way. But some, only some, poets do not. And if one is very good at it, the POV poet who writes outside his POV kicks major ass. His empathy is world class. And his craft is second to none. If he convinces you he is real, he is a god of writing. Shakespeare level shit for certain.

I think of, in example, a hypothetical in which the song Sleeping Sickness by City and Colour is written by a guy who’s never been depressed. I think that guy, such a guy, such a writer, would have to be really brilliant.