As I said before, one problem when you write first person poetry is that people tend to think of it being personal.
I suppose it is for some writers. Certainly one friend told me that he was the narrator in all his poems, and that all his poetry was based on personal experience. He has several collections to his name and we aren’t talking about adolescent angst or “diary entry” poems, so it’s a technique that clearly works for him.
Of course, one of the first things that we are told to do to make our writing realistic is “write about what you know.” So perhaps there is some justification for using our personal experience as a base for our writing.
However, one of the most frequent problems of amateur and novice poets is that when they write about what they know, they can’t detach themselves from it.
This has two main consequences. First, the insistence on details that have no relevance to the poem, and secondly, a strong attachment to the writing which means that any negative comment is taken as a personal attack.
Regarding the first point, surely, “That’s how it really happened” is insufficient defence for the inclusion of irrelevant and banal details in your writing, particularly in poetry which is a concise and precise form where every detail, every word, every sound should be carefully chosen to pull its weight.
The second point puts critiquers in a difficult position. They see a first person poem with a narrator who may have certain things in common with the writer. What should they do? If they criticise the poem, is the writer going to take offence because it is in fact their life which is under discussion?
As far as I’m concerned, even when a poem has its roots in reality, it quickly grows beyond that. If I’m ready to show my writing to someone else, wherever the piece may have originated, it has moved beyond a personal account to a somehow ‘idealised’ or fictionalised state where it is no longer me who is the narrator, if, indeed, I ever was.
So I don’t want critters to pussyfoot around being tactful about the content. I want to be told what works and what doesn’t as far as content, technique and execution are concerned. You can even tell me exactly what you think of my narrator: she and I are not the same person.
don't confuse the narrator 