Do you write by instinct? Or do you work at it?
Sometimes, maybe once a week or once every few weeks, I feel a poem coming on. It feels like my belly blows open and the words come charging in. When it happens, it’s a magical moment. But I need to write, so when the magic isn’t happening, I do writing exercises. Sometimes a poem comes out of those exercises, sometimes not, but I don’t believe the time is wasted.
What is this thing called inspiration, as it relates to writing? Dictionaries define it as (among other things):-
•a supposed force or influence on poets, artists, musicians, etc., stimulating creativity, ideas, etc.;
•a sudden brilliant, creative, or timely idea etc.;
•arousal of the mind to special unusual activity or creativity;
•a sudden intuition.
My personal view of inspiration is that it is the unconscious at work, that something deep has been accessed and brought to the surface.
I’ve been having this discussion with friends: is good poetry (or any poetry) the result of inspiration or perspiration? I say it’s some of both. There is no one way to write.
Inspiration vs. Revision
Even when a poem emerges from my pen as if by magic - purely inspired, you might say - it's never complete without some basic editing, some cleaning up of extraneous words, line break changes, reordering, that kind of stuff. Sometimes it takes a lot more than that, a new stanza, some removal of parts to my "good lines, but they don't fit here" file. Sometimes what seems great when fresh loses something overnight or overweek, so I like to let a new poem sit, like soup. Magic can lose it’s luster in the light of day.
I believe that most poems, even the very good ones, will benefit from careful revision. I’ve been given the advice, however, to always keep the original as well as each revision as it’s made. Maybe, in the end, the original will shine the brightest. The revision process may, however, help you discover layers in your poem you didn’t know were there, and perhaps turn that very good poem into a great one.
There are many techniques for the revision of poetry, but that’s another column.
Inspiration vs. Exercise
The other part of the inspiration vs. perspiration discussion is whether the writer should only write what comes in inspired moments, or whether he or she should seek out poems by doing writing exercises.
My bottom line on the subject of inspiration vs exercise comes from Mary Oliver in her highly recommended “A Poetry Handbook”. She basically says you have to make a date with your muse if you want her to come, and you have to be there for that date; you have to be reliable, and she'll start to trust you and start to show up regularly too. My interpretation of Oliver’s metaphor is that you need to write consistently, whether the muse - your inspiration - is there or not. You need to practice, and to have a practice.
A writing practice can be a daily ten minutes, a twice-weekly hour, or anything that fits with your lifestyle. The key, as I understand it, is that that time be honoured like any other appointment. What I believe is that by consistently practicing, you learn to access the unconscious more readily; the door is open, and “inspiration” will come in.
Object writing is one of my practices; when I was doing it daily, inspiration struck often. (See my column on object writing: allpoetry.com/Column/906017 ) I do it less now, but when I’m feeling dry, I find that getting back to it opens the floodgates. I also have a repertoire of exercises, and books full of new ones, and when "magic" doesn't happen on its own, I work at an exercise. Sometimes the exercise itself starts the chain of inspiration; that is the purpose of the exercise.
If I post a poem at AllPoetry that came from an exercise I like to say so, because, above all, I see this site as a place to share information, to learn from each other. To keep the source a mystery helps no one. If the poem is good, its genesis shouldn’t matter.
Sometimes I'll work and work and work at something, and all that work will result in junk. Next day, or soon, a different poem will plop itself on the page. I believe that poem came out of the work I'd done on the previous non-poem. I don't believe work is ever wasted.
Some people may not need exercises in order to write poetry; they simply write poetry, regularly. That is their practice, and it works for them.
Some people write “poetry” just to dump their emotions, and don’t care to edit or learn the craft; I suggest that that is not poetry, any more than a child’s experiments with paint is art.
I think that the more experienced we become, the more we "instinctively" come up with images, sounds, the good stuff that makes poetry poetry. In fact, we've trained ourselves. So what seems to just plop out on the page is really the result of many hours of studying the craft, reading excellent poetry, and writing poetry. Most of my old stuff I read and think "ewwww." I welcome anyone to join me in saying “ewwww” over my old stuff or their own.
The source of poetry is a mystery, and that's what I love about it. But I absolutely detest the idea that it is out of our control completely - that just leaves us at the whim of some vague and fickle muse. I want to believe I can write till I die, not by luck, but by design.
- - - - -
Recommended reading:
“A Poetry Handbook” - Mary Oliver
“The Practice of Poetry” - Robin Behn & Chase Twichell, eds.
“The Triggering Town” - Richard Hugo
“The Poet’s Companion” - Dorianne Laux & Kim Addonizio
“The Art and Craft of Poetry” - Michael J. Bugeja
(there are many, many more, found in the writing section of bookstores, usually near the reference section - not the poetry section!)
- - - - -
An easily accessible exercise, to get you started:
Write a poem off the first line of someone else’s poem, without first reading their poem. Here’s how:
•use a book of poetry, an anthology or otherwise
•before you open the book, decide which side of the page you’ll look at
•open the book at random
•read only the first line of the first poem on the side you’ve preselected
•copy that line, close the book, write with that line as your starting point
•the final version of your poem may or may not use the other poet’s line, but if it does, you need to give credit, usually just under your title
Have fun!
Included in the list
Add a comment
Comments
1 - 52 of 52
-
Zara -
Great column! This is filled with so much of what I have come to believe. A few years ago, while breaking out of a ten year slump, I began to write things with the specific intent to throw them away - the first two poems were just slathering grease on my mental gears and the third would be the "keeper" - an exercise I still use when my head slows down. In the kitchen wastebasket you will find a thousand words, don't fear adding to them - be confident that more will come.
I tell people that it is important to find ways to remove filters - to see clearly and to write exactly what is seen. Too often we write through lenses -
What will my readers think? How will this sound? These are important questions, to be sure, but it is more important for a poet to have enough confidence in his/her voice to know that these things will take care of themselves.
I have sponsored and entered "out of the box" contests - these are important exercises. We often become too comfortable writing in a certain style and using specific themes, so most people benefit from shaking things up. I tend to write a good deal of free verse, so when I am "stuck", I write highly structured forms (usually sonnets) and that will get the juices flowing again. An unfortunate result has been that I no longer have a damn box to get out of, and have so much trouble writing for those contests now...lol.
I have said before that anyone can write a poem, but only some are given the ability to write poetry - poets (a title I rarely apply to myself, but wear with pride whenever someone drapes it onto me).
Thanks for a great rumination on poetry and on what it takes...
Scott
Edited on Aug 29, 11:15 p.m. because 'typo'. -
excellent advice
I found this a very useful commentary. I also enjoyed the suggestions made by the reviewers. I have used the poetry guides you recommended, and another one, called "In the palm of your hand" by Steve Kowit, which is full of entertaining ways of practicing writing. I have tried a number, and yes, the poems that come out of them are not my best, not as inspired, not as moving, but what the heck, I'm honing the craft. I reckon by the time I get to 500 poems, a few should be good. -
My absolute best poems flow from my pen to an extent. By "best" I mean they satisfy my harshest critic--ME. Sometimes when I allow the writing process to be too tedious, my final product is medicinal and void of the emotion I intended. As a result, I get lots of cushy "you followed all the rules" statements but not much, "I get what you are telling me". I am not sure that I believe in good or bad poetry any more than I believe in good or bad feelings. There are simply things I like more than others. It has always been my oppinion that poetry gives me an ability to express myself without living in fear of the comma splice. First and foremost, I have to be happy with my writing. I can listen to all the things everyone has to say, but in the end, I am the boss of me
. Quite often, stress and labor in my writing is a sign that I am trying to force something. I dont know how many times, I have put a piece away out of frustration, to find that somewhere down the road, it is called to memory by some new piece I am working on and fits perfectly.
Someone compared a poetic scribble to the childs art activities. I remember getting in trouble for coloring all over the page in my coloring book instead of staying in the lines. I also distinctly remember that I was trying to figure out how to color the back of the birthday cake that was in the picture. My critics never noticed it was one of the first signs that I was a creative thinker.
I believe that all creativity should be acknowledged whether you labor for days at your desk or not. Sometimes the laboring is done in the heart before the pen ever touches the paper. -
It's more than just magic and exercise that bring out the poems from me. I feel compelled to write whenever I'm sad, happy, angry, drunk and with every passing emotion. All I do is think of a line and the rest of it falls into place.
Sometimes though its just a song I hear that pulls the force in me out. I've been writing from as early as age nine. Hard to believe? But its true.
Whenever I'm asked where the words come from, I sincerely wonder aloud how people can't express their voices on paper.
All the same, thanx for taking your time to think up these thoughts for the benefit of all us poets. -
Yes, I remember, David - insta-poet! And if it works for you, all the more power to you. What I've really enjoyed is how people have put a lot of thought into adding their comments here, sharing their own experience. Thank you for a great comment!
-
“I think that the more experienced we become, the more we "instinctively" come up with images, sounds, the good stuff that makes poetry, poetry. In fact, we've trained ourselves. So what seems to just plop out on the page is really the result of many hours of studying the craft, reading excellent poetry, and writing poetry.”
I am probably borderline dyslexic, am an atrocious speller and know little of grammar. I give thanks to the person who invented spell check everyday. But what I really give thanks for is the fact I have always scribbled down thoughts until it has become instinct as Zara puts it.
Nearly everything you will ever read on my site took me as long to write as it took you to read it. I write or type very quickly as if it is dictated to me in my head. I hear nothing else. Crowded in a peak hour bus, in a rowdy public library- I hear nothing but that voice. Very often I would go through the comps and, see something, write something in three to five minutes and move on to the next comp for inspiration. The time it takes for a poem to be created from nothing and sitting on AP usually between five and ten minutes. I have always written like that because I simply do not have the time to dwell all day on a thought. But to get to that point you must have a good vocabulary, good vision on what you wish to say and a really good understanding of what it is to connect with yourself. I never consciously write. In other words, I don’t know what I have really written until I have finished writing it. It takes me longer to edit spelling mistakes and fill in the missing dyslexic gaffs than it does to write. That is the joy of inspiration. My belief is everybody is different but if I ever had to sit writing one poem for longer than half and hour I would die of boredom.
Exercises that may help with poetry.
Burn your rhyming dictionary
Understand feeling and description
Learn three new adjectives and two verbs a week
Use them in sentences until it becomes second nature.
Stamp on the ashes of that rhyming dictionary
If you really must rhyme, rhyme through the line not just at the end
Avoid clichés
Don’t write just about yourself
Be always writing whenever you can
Love what you write
Read good poetry when you can
Read poetry that seems strange to you
Don’t expect others to like your poetry but be happy when they do
Girls- boys will always love your poetry if they think they could be getting laid.
Have sex with the one who doesn’t like your poem- he’s the honest one.
Be brave when you write
Learn the English language as a musician learns to play their instrument.
Convert “a” & “the” into feeling, action and description words.
This is a really good column Zara and I hope many people read it. You are a great writer, they should if they want to improve.
David
Really good article
-
I realy liked this article great idea
Turttle -
loved it
I am new on this site and I believe my poems come for the heart and soul. The faces and fears of live. The new born child and a child given to one from another with and from the helping hand of God. I hope each of you keep writing and sharing your web of words that create many visions of life. Kind of a window into your soul.
thanks
sue -
I enjoyed reading this column, and I agree with most of it. I'm a little irritated by some people's comments that they produce a poem in a few minutes. That connotes little appreciation for others who work at honing their ideas and expression into a coherent and beautiful form. Even if my ideas come to me in meter and rhyme (and sometimes they do), there is always improvement to be made.
Good column, thanks.
-
Inspiration vs. Exercise
lots of detail hope thats at school and not rules after school as you never know those days as we sure have gone a long way I use to do running writing they don't do that now though I am still on mother earth I sometimes feel if we are training the youth for the next place perhaps the cartooon strip the jetson's was trying to say No No NO don't try this
-
great idea ;)
well have you ever noticed even when you were a child you would sit in say a special place under a tree and you would be just sitting daydreaming perhaps someone would say whats ya doing and you would answer oh nothing i feel its your christian love from jesus and god helping you shift through things and as time goes on in your life still no dam answers you read you seek you ask you start writing things from what you read and think yes this sounds like how I feel and as for me at 50 I sit early in the morning listen to the birds and think what is it about those birds that they can still sing whats it all about and with me one morning a bird poem came it was true on the 19/7/98 and then the one I tittled "Pray for the child inside all of us" then "the child" then "starting school" "youth of tomorrow"
"children" then 20/6/99 Life etc and its amazing how spirit is you release and as you know my darling friend if we don't stop fighting our mother planet will also think we don't love her I believe jesus's mother was a virgin as even men think that women are just a machine if they would stop fighting then perhaps even jesus would understand and would not keep inspiring us as I only want to read about artistic people these days as our country is drying out and even big birds are being caged and sold and I saw then and felt so sicken I thought where has the dove of peace gone gee I love you for this and great way to share I remember even Kevin wrote a poem regarding sitting in class one day dreaming and I thought how presious is this and done that myself until I meet a teacher named Mr English and since then I have wondered about Men not to forget the Dentist and so today I still wonder about things love ya
-
Thanks for posting this it was very interesting to me. I write cause sometimes it pops in my mind and spinns till I write it down.
"Some people write “poetry” just to dump their emotions, and don’t care to edit or learn the craft; I suggest that that is not poetry, any more than a child’s experiments with paint is art."
Is poetry not about life and lifes lessons? So if someone writes a poem full of emotion it is not a poem? Now I`m feeling that what I think is a poem from within me is now nothing in a true poets eyes. When I do write it is because something inside travels back and forth from one side of my brain to the other and untill I put it down on paper and can read it, my mind will not settle. Now maybe I`m a bit confused on what is a poem and what isn`t. Rereading your piece here with open mind and personally I think a poem from within a emotion is fine if it has a meaning and keeps a readers attention.
I did enjoy reading this and although I don`t totally agree with what you are saying I think it has good points to a writer.
Thanks again........xo
-
To me if you don't exercise the mind-blade it gets dull on its own. My question is, does inspiration come under the influence of will? If the answer is yes, then will, being something you can control, means inspiration does also. There are a number of ways you can do it. Are you a follower or a leader? Are you an original or something else? The more orignal a person is, the better the chances are for good poetry to come streaming out. Perspiration? Need to be WILLING to do the work. Almost every well-known and liked author puts enormous amounts of time in editing their works . . . 20 to 30 changes in a single poem are not uncommon. Mostly it's about catching the essence of the poem. The idea is there, but not necessarily the essence. In poetry essence is everything. It's not like prose or fiction or a novel . . . it's not necessarily calculated or deliberate, but it can be . . . once the writer establishes a premise, a mood, a thought, an expression, it's up to them to elaborate, expand, contract, hone, or go deep inside to capture that magical something that stimulates the imagination, taking someone along on their trip whatever that trip is, all for the sake of enrichment. People who write well but are challenged when it comes to themes become uninteresting after a while . . . it's like, yep, the same ol' same ol' . . . saying it differently, even interestingly, but on the same topic over and over again. There might be an exception to that rule and that would be nature poetry . . .at least you get variety because that's the nature (excuse the pun) of the beast.
Humans enjoy variety. They like to see things change in the theme department. However, when it comes to style they don't like to see much change because that's why they buy the book . . . the author sticks to his or her guns in the way they approach the subject matter and develop a familiarity and fondness of their style which they are attracted to. If they want to read a different style, they go read another author.
Hard work gets you everywhere. When inspiration comes, one should honor it by working hard to capture and express it then make part of something greater when it is shared.
Edited on Aug 20, 7:53 because ''. -
There are only a dozen from the Hundreds of my writings written that I can really appreciate. I cannot duplicate or construct at will. I seem proficient only when I do not interfere. ( the same with 'Paintings. ) There is a message for society there, somewhere. lol
-
Well said!
I love this column and I can't agree more with you. You have really penned some great reading material here. I hope many keen poets get down to reading this. Good poetry indeed is the result of inspiration and perspiration. If you want to learn a new form or forms of poetry, for example, you got to work hard to understand the form and to develop the skill of writing it. That involves research work, writing, revising, discussing with other poets who write in the same form, etc. It's hard work and in order to do it all, there has to be some inspiration...something that will make the writer want to learn more and more. I agree with you that you need to write consistently, whether the muse - your inspiration - is there or not. You need to practice, and to have a practice. I also agree with you cent percent that work is never wasted. How true that the more we "instinctively" come up with images, sounds, the good stuff that makes poetry poetry. In fact, we've trained ourselves.
Last but not the least, Thank You very much for the suggested reading books you have mentioned. I will see what I can get here in Mumbai, India and pick it up. If I do happen to get any, I will give you my feedback.
-
I personally feel like I write about two lines--the rest flows through me, not from me.
In other words, it's as if my work is not my own... I come up with an idea, but the words just come together--I don't think about them, or even attempt it, it's like I breathe life into two lines of text and the rest of it grows out of those two lines, like an infant grows into an adult. I guess I really can't explain what happens, but I truly don't attempt to create good poetry--it creates itself... The few poems I have on this site I really did try at are substandard and I dislike them... I don't know, it seems the best work comes out of nothing, and you can't explain where it came from.
-Luc- -
Superbly written and very helpful
Hi! Quite an interesting read this was. Oh, I have some opinions that differ, but the gist of it is so true. I am not a true poet; most of my writings are prose or free verse. I just had the occasion to try and define what prose poetry was with another writer and it sure is hard to find a true definition of it. Anyway, my usual MO is having words or images popping-up in my mind and I just HAVE to express them one way or another. It may be in writing or in art. I write on any kind of surface and have boxes full of writings that need organizing big time. But I always have paper and pencil on each side of my bed and if my thoughts just won't stop and suddenly whizzing by with something I want to remember and use later on, I will grope for the pencil, feel and grab the paper and blindly write it down; hoping I’ll be able to decipher it in the morning.
Another way of downloading what I feel is to doodle. Before I go to bed, I will sit on it, take paper and pencil and touch the paper with the lead, and it might start a line and evolve into a doodle or sketch and might even become a painting. It can also start with one word and become a series of phrases, related or not, just straight downloading from the brain without any idea of what will be written. I also can just take out my home-made scrabble game and will start with the usual seven tiles and the rest can change. I might decide that I want to use some letters for a specific spot; this will lead to a crossword. I can also play it as if I was my own adversary and no cheating allowed!
But often enough, words will provoke an acrostic. Not so often these days, I can just jot down all the fleeting thoughts I can harness quickly enough to commit to paper, but crying the loss of all the other thoughts that flashed by, while I was writing the previous ones. These thoughts might never be expressed and that is some kind of death to me.
If I don’t want to think for any reason at all, just the need to keep the Muses at bay, I’ll play Yathzee/Yum, until I’m ready to sleep
So, I guess that I do have the habit of creating something every night, be it in any form. That could be called a regular 'exercise' for the writer's or artist's mind. As for Muses, they hound me relentlessly and I wish that I had two hands per Muses, nine brains and tons of paper to accommodate all of them. But I must say that Erato is the strongest, for he is a regular with me. We share a cup of
every day and that does not please the other Muses, but what can I do?
Please do forgive my ChattyToes for babbling so much in this comment, but they are too old to change; I have to resort to putting them in sound-proof socks many a time! But, unfortunately or not, for you and the readers, I did not restrain them in this run-on comment. You can always delete it after reading it, I won't mind and neither will my Toes!
I truly enjoyed reading this. Thanks for expressing such good advice. 
-
you know..I"ve found that some of my poems seem to jsut appear as if by magick form my pen, so I guess I could agree with you, but some of my practice writes have turned out some good ones. Oddly enough I never seem to rememebr the time when I actually write the poem..its like someone else takes control of my arm and forces those words out.
-
i let my emotions inspire me.....then my heart and hand do the rest!
-
Oh, and I have often "ewwwd" over my old works too! Time and experience definitely helps!
-
I agree with facesofnatalia, in your statement of "dumping emotions" not counting as poetry. I don't have any professional poets to pose as examples, but in my opinion poetry is just composed feelings. My poetry often takes no shape at all, and is just ramblings, which I feel lead somewhere and fit together rather nicely. And I suppose I am agreed with by a few of my applauders, just as I am sure there are people who would actively disagree with that statement. However, my point is, who are we to say what poetry is when it is just an expression of the individual poet's soul and feelings? Besides this, I found this a helpful piece for those who wish to really hone their writing skills. I shall definitely try some of these drills myself, as I'm in a particularly rough time of writer's block myself! : / Thanks!
Reesa
-
Quite an interesting article, the classic old age question inspiration/perspiration. Nice that you have taken the time to help people out.
-
Yes, Rambler, it's all false dichotomy, designed to help us understand our experiences. And who says even poetry and science are distinct? I like the holistic approach.
-
And, yes, I did say it, but yes, to emphasize: reading is probably the most important thing you can do!
(Although, those pros, they make it look so easy....)
-
I knew, when I wrote those lines about "poetry" not being poetry, that it would stir up some discussion, or at least I hope they would, so thank you for picking up on that. I think it's wonderful that people express themselves through writing, and I don't criticize them for that. There is room for all of it, of course.
The point is that to develop the craft, if one wants to, some work is involved. I really appreciate your comment, thanks.
-
good
Yeah same with my poems. Mine come from pure inspiration. When I get an idea I just start writing and let my pen do all the talking -
I used to write for the sheer pleasure of it. I write what many call "Hallmark" poetry. I think it has its place..I enjoy reading and writing it. I will never be the kind of poet that uses metaphors and symbolism to express simple thoughts and feelings..it just doesn't feel "natural" to me. I feel the same way about paintings and sculpture..I want to look at something and immediately see the beauty of it without having to look for "hidden meanings".
I enjoyed your article..I do believe we get better at something when we do it often. I also enjoyed the quote mentioned by Amberlee Carter, "Write from the heart and edit from the head."
Maureen
-
I would have to agree with most of what you wrote about here. I didn't particularly care for the lines about people writing to dump their emotions not being poets, but that was just personal thoughts. I've seen some children's paintings, and some that are famous, and I can't tell the difference between some of them. But overall I would have to agree with you, and whole heartedly applaud this piece. A superb write.
-
This is sooooo True! I have been using the contests on this site as writing excersizes, and now, just logging onto the site tends to start up my engine! I think that sometimes the poems that just sort of plop out of my head have been sitting in there brewing for days. I am a big believer in editing, too. Oh, this was a good article to read! Thank you so much!
Willowleaf -
Awesome, awesome column. I especially agree with you that writing purely to feel better about yourself without caring about the skills involved just cheapens the art of poetry. Good job.
-GenXPsalmist- -
I don't remember who, but it was a famous poet who said: " write from the heart and edit from the head"
I always try to apply that rule when writing. I suffer from severe writer's block sometimes...and I won't do anything about it, because I'm very critical of everything I write, if I were to write just to try and suffer through the block, it would completely defeat me since what I would write would be completely passionless..
I write because I must, for whatever reason. I've tried to walk away from it, but I can't..
I think there is a fine line between passion and desperation...poems are born out of both... -
cheers
"Some people write “poetry” just to dump their emotions, and don’t care to edit or learn the craft; I suggest that that is not poetry, any more than a child’s experiments with paint is art."
sick of elitists saying this.......i'm also sick of reading that kind of emo poetry, by the way, but i would say yes, it's poetry. it's amateurish poetry, but it's still poetry. the trouble with that kind of belief is that it leads to the belief that one can only be a poet if he/she is a kind of obsessively austere kind of person who thinks too hard about everything.....let's not forget the Beat ideal of 'first thought best thought.' is allen ginsberg not a poet?
(course, that may be a bad example, because ginsberg was a big fan of william blake and other classicists, and 'learned the craft' as they learned it. but in his later work, a kind of mental exhalation onto the page, there cannot have been much revision)
hear hear on the usefulness of experience though. my 'mental exhalations' now are rather cool, whereas they used to be meaningless. i don't put more work into the actual poems, but over the years i've been putting in work over the course of writing and reading them. so it's cool.
exercises though are quite cool. i don't do enough of them. i have a certain way of looking at things, which results in a certain kind of poetry—exercises can open yr mind and allow other types of poetry and other topics to flower into the opened mind. -
Very Good
I have saved every one of my poems.Just as a reference to see where I started and how much I've improved. One thing I found interesting in what you said, is to keep the original...I have never done that, but I'm thinking now I might as I liked the idea of comparing.I think you hit a lot of good points here. -
really wonderful essay on where poems come from! very well written. I have to agree with all that you've said. and I applaud you for posting it to educate and inform the AllPo readers.
someone once said "luck is when preparation meets opportunity." I think an inspired poem is similar. the good ones aren't just brought by the tooth fairy or the easter bunny. they come from having practiced and honed your skills, from having written regularly enough to allow a poem to flow onto your paper (or screen) when your muse drops by to inspire you. and they come from having read enough good poetry for the art to have rubbed off on you. for the most part, people who are in love with the first words they write and call it a poem, have short-changed themselves and their readers. you can ALWAYS make a poem better if you work at it.
but then, what do I know about poetry...
~travis
-
excellent
You hit a whole forest of nails on the head with this one. Indeed sometime I have to get out of bed to write something and on other days (weeks) I just have. A basket of paper balls. But there certainly is no wasted writing.
Loved the comparison with angst to fingerpainting.
John -
I think the inspiration vs perspiration is a false dichotomy, very much like heart vs head. Just as there is no real separation between heart and head (except in many minds) I don't think there is any real division between inspiration and perspiration except in how they might feel. And feeling is hardly a reliable indicator of reality. Some of my best poems started out as pure drudgery and ended up inspired. I think when it comes to things like poetry we should be careful about labeling things as if we were conducting a science experiment. It's two entirely different worlds.
Edited on Aug 19, 9:42 p.m. because ''. -
This is a wonderfully written article. I am constantly revising, and my poems all start raw off the top of my head. I love to write so I write weather it turns into a poem or not.. my archives are full of unfinished work. I like the comparison you make to a child's drawing.
Red -
Thank you for writing this! I enjoyed reading it...and I'm sure it will do me some good, especially the exercise at the end. :-) Great column!
-
Oh I'm back .. and also. Let yourself be quiet, absorb the surroundings .. go outside, kneel in the dirt, look at the ocean, lake, mountains, make it smaller look at the grass, the tiny bug, the stamens and pollen inside a flower .. go big, the sky the moon the stars .. smell things. take in the city, the road, the concrete .. the smog. let yourself be quiet ..and give yourself time .. for inspiration to seep in. for the muse to whisper or startle.
sorry, i said i wouldn't spew madness.
Edited on Aug 19, 8:35 because ''. -
thanks for writing this. I think it is pretty important for starting writers and amateur writers (like myself) to start revising, even those that are personal. One advice our profs give us when writing, whether it is a poem or a short story or whatever, is that after one is done with it, leave it for a while. Then after having accumulated some stuff, dig some up and re-read the whole thing with a different eye. That usually works with personal pieces, because by the time you've written and almost forgotten the work, you can see some more logic and possibly add something more, or elaborate, or explore a poem in a different direction because of your detachment to your own work.
This is a great column. I hope many writers here in AP will get to read it.
Kannika -
Congrats on your Syndication!! I will not spew my madness here. This is a clean and clear vision you have put forth ..
I'd add that to READ READ READ READ poets all different kinds from all different time periods .. equally if not more for me more important than exercises but thats me.
Also, I remember when I first came to AP .. I played around with all the Forms. Writing forms takes a fair amount of discipline ..but also introduces the mind and lips to the "sounds of words" easier I think than free-style.
But but but .. Hannah and Sam have spilled some beautiful Art for me when they first encountered paint, pastel, and what of my clay squirrel under cloche!? I have a few framed around the house and people often think Sam's Oriental-style "blown with a straw" branch painting is some expensive piece...
Also, for me, highly unexperienced and basically a "born again writer" .. every piece I write could be described as an exercise .. really. I do like feedback though and think Workshopping poems is an excellent insight into "how you sound"
I'd conclude by saying .. I do think Writers are born for the most part. As are mathematicians, scientists etc...and somewhere along our development, a teacher, mentor, parent recognizes our unique gifts .. and introduces us to them. It is then that we can take responsibility for our gifts growth ..
With love.
-
Oh thanks for this Zara. It couldn't have come at a better time. I've been suffering from writer's block for a long time and the last few poems I wrote were not inspiration but more perspiration. I wrote because I knew I had to get back in the swing of things. I miss my muse!
I'm going to try that writing exercise now.
-
Excellent column. I'm always amazed when writers write poems where the theme is something simple. These writers turn the mundane into marvelous and it just blows my mind. Thanks so much for the column it's very informative.
~Dee -
ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww (aimed at all my old work, and most of my new stuff too!!!)
-
Distinguish means to tell the difference between one and another or several others, not the definition I gave above.
-
because i meant congeal and seperate from the mass as a physical idea, not just understand it more clearly.
Refine, as in to remove from the mass of similarities as one cohesive whole, is the intended meaning. -
Yes, in the only two poetry courses I've taken, in Universities thousands of miles apart, that was the book the instructor used. Distinctify - like that! Though you'd have to clarificate how it differs from "distinguish".
-
Oh, you gotta love the "ewwww"!
Thanks for your input.
-
"The Practice of Poetry" is a wonderful book. I've used it in lessons and my own poetry.
Regardless, inspiration in my opinion is no more than the ability to distinctify (new word) a moment of a day that is a poem. That is, the ability to refine a poem from the whole slew of webs of things and events and emotions attached to the poem-area. This comes often in bursts, though occasionally (at least for me) in slow measured build-ups. -
Very interesting information indeed. on some days, all that comes to me is a single line and a few days later, another line. Sometimes I keep going like this until I have a whole page of lines or thoughts and at times, when I manage to put these together, I can bang out a really great write.
I also join you in looking back at some of my older writes and think, "Ewwwwww, at the time I thought that was a really good poem but upon reflecting on it, I look back now and think it was total garbage. Although a lot of people have told me I am wrong in this thought process, I still sometiomes say Ewwwww"
What you have written here isd truely worthy of contemplation and I thank you for that. Be Well and Be Blessed
-
I find that you kind of get to combine the two by trying to develop good writing habits. That way, when you're all inspired and writing in a fever, you still spew out something comprehensible to others. You don't have to go through so much heavy editing. It saves more for the inspiration and less for the perspiration. Remember kiddies; Uncle Neurosine says, 'Practice good writing, you spoiled brats.'
-
Interesting column Miz Z. I think you're on track....exercises are a way of getting the creative juices flowing...I find the same in art --- push things around long enough..and some flash of creativity leaps out. If we don't fiddle about and wait only until the muse seizes us by the throat, then the dry periods are long indeed.
One cannot, however, make a mediocre piece of writing GOOD by any amount of exercising - it must contain a spark.
In my own experience, I find some fall out looking pretty well complete (requiring tweaks over the next day or two) and then I find others....come out partially...and only by noodling do I complete the piece.
We all think some of our earlier pieces are crap - this is called 'progress'. Those who think everything they've ever written is genius...are not progressing.
Nicely said.
Adding your comment:
1 - 52 of 52
