Personal Narrative V. Lyrical

Recently I've been thinking about the differences between, for lack of better terms, the personal narrative poem and the lyrical poem. What I mean by personal narrative and lyrical is: poems that surface from personal experience/events and poems that do not surface from personal experience/events, respectively (which leads me to ask, Isn't every poem personal to the poet, but now I really am rambling).

Though I've mostly written the personal narrative, I've had an underlying desire to move away from the narrative to the lyrical, and in the last few months my poems have moved in this direction. The question that follows is, Why? Why do I think this shift might lead to better poems? Why do I mistrust the personal narrative? Why has my work shifted in this direction, because I'm willing it or because it's a natural progression?

Some initial thoughts:

• Sometimes I have a hard time believing my personal narrative could be universal. As with all artists, poets are trying to speak to a wide audience, to connect with them, to transform their personal ideas and experiences into something that resonates with a multitude of readers/listeners. A tiny voice sometimes chips its way into my head, suggesting no one is interested in reading about my experience dealing with my mother's cancer. Still, it is frequently the personal narrative poetry of other poets that I'm drawn to.
  
• I'm often labeled a women's poet, for good or for ill. A woman's personal narrative is sometimes discounted. (I realize this is a very general statement that is likely to incite intense emotions, thus my reason for not expanding on it. It is too unwieldy for me to deal with at this time, but it is a thought I've had so I wanted to record it.)
  
• The personal narrative, rising from real life experience, does something to the memory of that real life experience. In writing experience down, attempting to bring some permanence or insight, the writer inevitably changes the memory of the experience. Of course, even without writing, memory is never the same as the actual experience. But the process of writing, purposefully revisiting and reshaping, further alters the memory. I find it comparable to taking a photograph. In one sense it helps preserve the experience. On the other hand, as the memory/writing gains energy and power, the actual experience loses that energy/power.