Title Poem

I was irked to hear a poet say of his celebrated book that first the title came to him and then months passed as he worked at (or did he say "waited for" ? ) a poem to be the "title poem".

On that basis so many poets would struggle to write a piece to be titled "New Collected Poems" - especially when the collection is new but not all of the poems are new.

A local poet can sport many badges of the authentic, the regional, and I distrust them all - age especially, that years make for "genuine".  Some prefatory remark had primed me to be irked so readily.

And I could not swear that a title has never occurred to me before a poem took full shape.  This must often be the case with the poem commissioned or demanded by some occasion, the death of a poet, the death of a parent, a sibling, a child, a mentor, or a spouse.  A muse.  A beloved cat. Monody.

Robert Hass must have known he would one day write a piece in memory of Milosz.

But though irked, I did not boo or groan.  The Greeks were not so reticent, nor, I imagine,  was the real Dr. Johnson.  See the many remarks of Pepys on sermons as found in his diaries.

Assignment: write something with the title "The Death of Virgil".  Truly, this
is irksome to consider.

But can a title be decisive in the sales of a book of poetry?  Is it because of how that title will appear on the page in the reviews?  Is it that so many titles of books of poetry are not memorable, and the title poem less so?

For painters with work for a gallery, the name of the show is needed for the brochure, the poster, the rest of the mechanics of commerce.

And with fame, eponymous will triumph, as does the name of Heaney for a few pages of a foreward to a thick book by many hands.  More than the title, the name will move so many to pull the book from the bookseller's shelf - and that purchase is essential to the survival of just what - authentic, genuine, poetry?

If a poet is to be trusted by the attentive listener, reader, then sometimes the less said, the better.

Temptation: to talk to your listening audience for a longer time than that which will be taken to read the work.  Translations of fragments and short gems to be excused in advance - along with the reading of commissioned epitaphs.

Critical Comment: "that awkward effort to shock your reader mars your work."

Doubtful Response: "and I do that to provoke this very discussion!"

Of that title poem, the poet said that his reading might fall or falter between the poem as remembered in its coming to him and the poem as transcribed from memory by him.  Then it should have been read until so revised as to be ready to be read from the printed book, for it is now confessed to be less than ready to support the title.   Imagine the architect, standing in the foyer before those gathered for the occasion, and making this declaration of his structure, its design, its finishings and furnishings.

Perhaps the next printing, the next edition, will find the poem revised - or under a new title.