Chaos in Poetry

David Wiley

A poet died at an early age, after a life of debauchery, and was surprised to see he had been instantly transported to Paradise. Soon he encountered an angel, to whom he said, "I don't think I'm supposed to be here." "There are quite a few people here who probably shouldn't be here," said the angel, "and quite a few people who aren't here who should be here." "Why is that?" asked the poet. "You tell me," replied the angel. "It's you and your kind who create all this confusion." Reportedly, it was just after reading Rimbaud that Anais Nin remarked, "There is fertility in chaos." And therein lies the key to chaos in poetry. Poets are generally more concerned with fertility than with reason. Their purpose is to explore reality from different angles and unusual points of view, "To see the world in a grain of sand, and heaven in a wildflower/ to hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour." Poetry often clarifies and confuses, at more-or-less the same time. If the purpose of poetry is to describe in words what cannot be described in words, there is bound to be some aspect of chaos present. Even poetry that describes something perfectly, beautifully and succinctly, may raise a storm of questions. When John Milton wrote, "I'd rather be a ruler in hell than a slave in heaven," he was using extremes to express an opinion, which is often done in poetry, but sometimes it creates a more chaotic vision of things than perhaps the poet intended. Or perhaps not. There is a sub-tradition of intentional obfuscation in poetry. Mental turmoil was used inventively by the surrealists and the Beat poets. "A Coney Island of the Mind" is a title that well-expresses the chaotic fertility of that era. Poetry doesn't intend to answer conscious questions. It sometimes answers questions emanating from the unconscious, or the subconscious. The answers poetry gives to questions are not answers, or questions, in the usual sense. They are questions that must be asked poetically, just as the answers must be given poetically. The realities described in poetry are as diverse as the realities found in nature. If there is fertility in chaos, there is also chaos in fertility. The best poetry makes use of both.