What is ‘Feral Poetry’?

just poetry cracking open
the encrusted cases of hardened thinking

Feral poetry is more concerned with being itself than being defined … this means that it can be described, but never defined because its borders are always shifting …. it is unpredictable, unexplored, and unclaimed. To attempt to define it would be to capture and bring it into the realm of civilized living.

From what I can tell though, Feral Poetry seems more concerned with the creative, natural soul in all things and tries to draw that part out of everything, like cutting open a rock to find crystals inside.

If you want to look at it spiritually, equate “wild” with “soul”, then Feral Poetry is poetry that has returned to its soul. Feral Poetry describes the process where-by we creatively return to the soulful wilderness of the infinite, as both writer and reader. It’s poetry that defies what you would expect and doesn’t care what anyone thinks, but says what needs to be said instead of hiding behind the embellished mask of convention. It cuts through the quagmire of ego and persona, unconsciously aiming for that elusive originality, its secret strength.

If you want to look at it intellectually, perhaps it comes from what we could name as the “undifferentiated pre-personal”–this is the “wild”, where childhood dreams, animistic perception and magic collide with inherent truths that are inherent because they are as natural a part of existence as the wind and the rain. At this early stage, we have Wild Poetry. But Feral Poetry has gone to another level, because it has undergone the civilizing process of the ego, has been “differentiated” and then transcended … now Feral Poetry rides on the wave of integration, coming back home with a transpersonal unifying perception.

How do you describe Feral Poetry then?

The description will be different from person to person, but I describe it as:

wild, heady, unselfconscious, free, independent, interdependent and innerdependent, unpredictable, truthful, unembellished, direct, hidden in everything, erotic, natural, phenomenal, surprising, creative, fecund, explorative, expansive, undefined, inexplicable, down and dirty, uncut, pure, rough, timeless, personal, subliminal, liminal, beautiful and ugly at the same time, contradictory, simplistic, soulful, crazy, insane, odd, synchronistic, potent, piercing, revolutionary, magical, original

Where does Feral Poetry come from?

Where does it not come from, is more to the point. It doesn’t come from the conscious ego self, but instead seems to draw from any source that takes its fancy, most often raising its head out of the subconscious realms. It can be anything and anyone, and defies all boundaries (be they taboos, social norms, systems of thought, religious dogma, even one’s own deepest beliefs about the self) … although sometimes it uses these to its own advantage.

Quotes that illuminate the concept of Feral Poetry:

“There is a tame and also a wild side to the human mind. The tame side, like a farmer’s field, has been disciplined and cultivated to produce a desired yield. It is useful, but limited. The wild side is larger, deeper, more complex, and though it cannot be fully known, it can be explored. The explorers of the wild mind are often writers and artists. The “poetic imagination” of which William Blake so eloquently spoke is the territory of wild mind. It has landscapes and creatures within it that will surprise us; it can refresh us and scare us. It reflects the larger truth of our ancient selves, both animal and spiritual.” Gary Snyder, Writers and the War Against Nature, © Resurgence, Issue 239 (Nov/Dec 2006) http://www.resurgence.org

“Just once, let what is in your care grow wild/ enough to see the world through its own eyes.” Jason Kirkey, “Conversations with Maple”

“A reverence for life is a reverence for wildness –a reverence for life beyond your control.” Doug Peacock, author

“Genuine art tells the truth.” Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, buddhist author and artist “Dharma Art”

“You don’t know what you’re going to get into when you follow your bliss.” –James Hillman, psychologist and thinker on “Archetypal Psychology”

read comments (0)