How to Write About Memory Without Writing a Sentimental Poem

Memory is the most written-about subject in poetry and the most likely to be sentimental. A judge on the three moves that turn a memory poem into a real one, the test that tells you if the poem is about the memory or about you, and the one image that always works.

Memory is the most written-about subject in poetry, and it is the most likely to be sentimental. Every contest pile has a stack of memory poems that are about the past and the way it felt and the way it is gone, and the sentimentality is the thing that makes the poem a sob story instead of a poem.

The memory poem that works is not about the memory. It is about the person who is remembering.

The sentimental trap

The sentimental poem is the one that tells you how good the memory felt. The childhood, the friendship, the love, the time that is gone. It is accurate and it is flat, because the memory is the subject and the subject is the one thing the reader can feel for themselves.

A poem about memory should not describe the memory. It should describe what the memory does to the person who is in it.

The three moves that turn a memory poem into a real one

Move one: put a person in it. The memory poem that works has a person in it, a parent, a friend, a self. The memory is the stage; the person is the play. The poem is about the person in the memory, not the memory itself.

Move two: give the memory a body. The memory should be doing something to the body, the hands that are holding the photo, the eyes that are looking at the past, the voice that is saying the name. If the memory is just sitting there, it is a backdrop. If it is doing something to the body, it is a subject.

Move three: let the memory change you. The best memory poems are the ones where the speaker is different at the end than they were at the beginning, and the memory is the thing that changed them. The memory is the agent; the poem is the change.

The question that decides

Here is the question I ask when I am judging a memory poem: is this poem about the memory, or is it about the person in the memory? If the answer is the memory, it is a sentimental poem. If the answer is the person, it is a poem.

The sentimental poem says 'this is how good it felt'. The real memory poem says 'this is what the memory did to me'. The difference is the difference between a diary and a life.

A worked example

Bad: 'I remember the summer we spent at the beach and it was the best time of my life and I miss it every day.' The memory is the subject; the speaker is absent.

Better: 'I still keep a jar of sand from the beach on my desk, and I do not know if it is the sand or the memory of the sand that I am keeping.' The memory is the agent; the speaker is the person who is changed by it. The poem is about the person who has been changed by the memory, not the memory itself.

Where it goes wrong

The trap is the poem that is a complaint about the memory. The complaint is not a poem; it is a grievance. The poem is the thing that the memory did to the person who was in it, and the doing is the work.

If you want to see a memory poem that is about the person, the prompts library has a set on the past and the self, and the contest window is open when the draft is ready. The memory is the stage. The person is the play.

Keep reading

For the craft side, the time collection covers the deeper method. The volta module is the page to read next, and the metaphor module is where the work goes when it is done.

By Writory Editorial, for Writory.

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