Issue 29

Notes

With poetry, we must always remain sensitive to context. The contextual meanings of words and groups of words in verse is just as important as, if not at times more important than, their semantic meanings. Additionally and crucially, verse cannot be what it is and cannot be made into poetry without these two means being in constant and relevant communication. With semantic meaning as a cornerstone and beginning, verse is known to be a unit in literary art, but without contextual meaning, it is likely never to be known or appreciated as poetry.

Context is, and can be appreciated as, small or large, adjacently or remotely, stretching from the beginning to the end or within a single word. Contextual meaning exists on a near continuum of sound and shape allowing the abstract discreteness of semantic meaning to socialize, creating poetic polyphonic substance.

Contextual meaning is unavoidable, it emerges immediately from the addition of a second letter, a second sound, a second word, a second line. Anything beyond oneness is steeped with contextual discourse. A good writer cares to nurture this discourse in their own work and a good reader cares to receive it in what they are reading. In order for us to engage with it, we must be nuanced in our attention and sensitive to ourselves.

- W.B.