This article starts with an example followed by discussion and more.

organic poetry (patterns, pantoum)

Compiled 7/14/2005 2:35:45 AM GMT

To the Birth of a Feminist Poetry (1951-1969)
- messages from 1 to 7 of ,Discussions
Raw and shaped as nature shapes
Instructive. It's been a while since college,

- messages from 1 to 7 of ,Discussions
Just as we have seen the organic within
Instructive. It's been a while since college,
Consider using tapes of Levertov reading her own poetry.

Just as we have seen the organic within
Market. Recipes - Gupta designed several social games
Consider using tapes of Levertov reading her own poetry.
Why the fire teachers who allow students

Market. Recipes - Gupta designed several social games
Recent 5 Levertov characterizes
Why the fire teachers who allow students
McEvers Succulent Silence from Fluxus Poetry in Commotion. Dick

Recent 5 Levertov characterizes
Date: March 3, 2003 - Haiku Organic Twig
McEvers Succulent Silence from Fluxus Poetry in Commotion. Dick
Festival will begin by transforming the

Date: March 3, 2003 - Haiku Organic Twig
Coffee :: poetry :: shade grown - The Sweet
Festival will begin by transforming the
Imagining the - Which is not to say that

Coffee :: poetry :: shade grown - The Sweet
Of prose signals the awareness of the On this cycle
Imagining the - Which is not to say that
Are cohesive, organic and magical. Kathleen Raine MILLENNIAL

Of prose signals the awareness of the On this cycle
The homoerotic project into the poem, creating
Are cohesive, organic and magical. Kathleen Raine MILLENNIAL
Clear a space - Green Earth Organics is an Organic Food

The homoerotic project into the poem, creating
Organic and turned into one man's
Clear a space - Green Earth Organics is an Organic Food
That will do wonders for your -In the process

Organic and turned into one man's
Poetry idea, nuturing the kind of youthful
That will do wonders for your -In the process
Garden The garden Which was his Lies unplanted now In Spring

Poetry idea, nuturing the kind of youthful
- Precisely what is meant by an "organic"
Garden The garden Which was his Lies unplanted now In Spring
Prepositional Investigations (:) Of Language (and)

- Precisely what is meant by an "organic"
Raw and shaped as nature shapes
Prepositional Investigations (:) Of Language (and)
To the Birth of a Feminist Poetry (1951-1969)

Off the cuff…

Organic + architecture. Organic + poetry. Does either make any sense? Both? Probably both, but not as much sense as organic + form or organic + food. When it comes to organic poetry, ask your muse, the next poet or do some automatic, organic writing of your own. Follow the lead.

A typical online ChicagoPostmodernPoetry.com interview of Shin Yu Pai poses the question that helps distinguish organic from synthetic approaches:

1) How do you form a poem? Is poetry an organic or synthetic process for you? Poetry is both organic and synthetic in its process for me. I sometimes sit for a very long time with an idea, up to a year, sketching out notes and ideas and collecting images and lines which spring from a very organic process of engaging with the world and language. When I sit down to finally give shape to an idea, that can be more synthetic and automatic in terms of beginning to integrate and weave together the separate strands. I collage different bits of language together and when I can begin to see what’s in front of me, a more intuitive process kicks in.

To describe the making of an organic poem, images and theme come from a time and place of engagement or commitment. The thinking and writing that mirrors it is an internal, experiential, even biological process with an automatic, unfettered writing down of the thoughts that have come up. On the other hand synthesis is revising, editing and refining text, of automatically bringing different ideas together using well-defined rules and conventions to form a new idea that might not otherwise have occurred to anyone.

Organic and synthetic approaches are interchangeable in the crafting of a poem and therefore are hard to distinguish. The word "automatic" applies to both, but in different senses. Tentatively, automatic writing, the surrealist technique, and automatism are similar to organic poetry. Synthesis in poetry is automatic as in mechanical, and even subject to non-human composition by way of automation in that it relies on conventions of poetic form, composition, grammar and usage. For an article about music album Automatic Writing go to Automatic Writing (album). ... Automatism is the practice or theory of the spontaneous production of words (speech or writing), drawing, painting or other creative production, or behavior in general, without conscious self-control or self-censorship. ... Automatic refers to any self-operating machine or automaton. ... The word mechanical can mean one of several things: A device or principle described as mechanical relates to a mechanism or machine, or the realm of Newtonian mechanics. ... Automation (ancient Greek: = self dictated) or industrial automation is the use of computers to control industrial machinery and processes, replacing human operators. ...

Perhaps the best way for the listener and reader of a poem under consideration is to make a determination, or even a wild guess, as to what seems to matter in that poem in order to distinguish and categorize between organic and synthetic.

Denise Levertov?

Why not. One of the best possible search results is this excerpt Some Notes on Organic Form that she wrote. Denise Levertov (October 24, 1923 - December 20, 1997) was a British born American poet. ...