How Can My Poem Be True?

Using Poetic Inquiry to Explore the Meaning and Value of Poetic Fictions

Authors

  • John L. Hoben Assistant Professor Memorial University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18432/ari29569

Keywords:

poetic inquiry, poetry, autoethnography, life-history, art-based research

Abstract

How can a poem be true? This autoethnographic study uses poetic inquiry to explore the boundaries between fiction and reality within poetic experience. A series of poems composed during, and about, the current COVID-19 pandemic, provides a means of understanding the experience of having one’s everyday reality overturned by crisis. A central theme of the author’s poems and accompanying reflections is how art can be used to explore psychological experiences, such as melancholia and depression, and, in turn how the experience of suffering can be used to facilitate artistic expression. Using poetic inquiry, the author examines the complex interplay between speaker and authorial intention, fiction and truth, text and the performance of writing, reading, and poetic interpretation.

Author Biography

John L. Hoben, Assistant Professor Memorial University

John Hoben, PhD is an Assistant Professor in Memorial University’s Faculty of Education. A former practicing lawyer and poet, John researches how poetry and narrative can be used to provide insights about writing, culture, and identity.

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Published

2021-09-04

How to Cite

Hoben, J. L. (2021). How Can My Poem Be True? Using Poetic Inquiry to Explore the Meaning and Value of Poetic Fictions. Art/Research/International:/A/Transdisciplinary/Journal, 6(2), 369–388. https://doi.org/10.18432/ari29569