Authenticity
Keely Adler and
Authenticity
Keely Adler and
Swept up in the Instagramization of the 2010s, the contemporary poetry world saw an exaltation of ‘honesty’ as an aesthetic priority. Poetry not as craft, but as ‘outlet,’ with the goal not of developing ourselves and enriching our understanding of the world, but of sitting more comfortably with how we already were and what we already believed.
... See moreFuneral inspo. But also life inspiration. Hold space for inconveniences. Show up raw. Give space to the ugly versions of you so they can live and die.
The original poem this piece is built on is called ‘Tract’ - written by William Carlos William (whose work was a muse for the film Paterson).

Honesty is a strange aesthetic criterion to prioritize. Great confessional art was never about accurately representing reality, but about giving voice to the process of experiencing it—how we feel, not what we’re feeling, making lucid that which usually eludes full expression.