Claude Royet-Journoud

A few years ago in the AWP catalog I saw a call for submissions of aphorisms. It intrigued me, in part because I’d just come across a book by a poet I was translating that was entirely aphorisms, and had just written a review of a book that worked with aphorisms (though not exclusively) that I thought was wonderfully done. And though I didn’t submit anything, and don’t remember which journal it was (though I wish I did – would love to find and read the issue – anyone?) it stayed in show more the back of my mind.

Aphorisms as a poetic form raises interesting questions about poignancy, insight, length, originality and explanation. The sound-bite quality they have seem incredibly useful for a lot of different applications, and of course appealing to a short-attention-span more-is-better mentality (culturally speaking). Aphorisms are the tweets and status updates of poetic thinking.

The risk they run is balancing on that line between poignancy and cliché, between insight and grandiosity and pretension. Their success at first glance seems to hinge on the originality of the idea, rather than the language used to express it, something that tends more towards philosophy than poetry in my mind. But then aphorisms work best at the intersection between philosophy and poetry – the idea drawing from the philosophical reflection, but the lack of explanation, the insistence on absorption rather than proof draws from poetry.

[Read the rest: http://alluringlyshort.com/2012/11/28/the-whole-of-poetry-is-preposition-by-clau.... show less