All good poetry is autobiographical in that we write about the human experience and what it means to be human. I was not a surfer girl spending her summers on the beach at Santa Cruz, but I could have been and I know what I would have done if I were there. If I was in San Francisco in the summer of 1966, attending honors classes at U. C. Berkeley, I would find my way to the Dead and the Airplane and would be girlfriends with Janis and Grace. When I arrive on a planet orbiting Tau Ceti, I write what must be.
Have I made love in all the various ways I sometimes describe? Those moments are as autobiographical as any other lines I may write.
When I write about the Sacramento Valley, the Pacific Coast, and the Sierras, everything happens as it is written. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.
Time is a continuum in which reality resides. What happened then may not be what happens now.
I am not Sappho, but I have a similar neurobiology and feel what she feels. Most times I consciously do not write as if I were still living on a island in the Mediterranean, but when I allow Sappho to speak, all is true.
My muse is an ancient, demanding bitch.
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Show/hide comments
Show/hide comment form
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
Starpoetby Lisa Jain Thompson.
I welcome your comments. You can use the public forms that appear throughout the site or visit my contact page and leave a private note.
For your own email copy of my weekly Starpoet Newsletter, you can subscribe here or (sadly) unsubscribe there.
