More in Searching for Something: On how I write poetry
Searching for Something: On how I write poetry
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No need to apologize – you write in the way that works for you, and the results certainly warrant respect for the frame of mind and approach that spawned them.
I don’t agree with you about “It isn’t as if [you’re] writing some great masterpiece”. It certainly is for me. No, this is neither joke nor megalomania. I don’t expect anyone to read my work a century from now, but I do write as if they are going to do so, and I want my work to be good enough to stand that test. If it doesn’t, it’s a disappointment. It is the target, the standard, the benchmark. That benchmark I believe has helped immensely to improve my writing.
Re shoelaces: If you think about it, much of the programming that makes it automatic is based on feeling.
I don’t believe in choosing a purpose at the beginning – at least not an unchanging purpose. As a former professor of English lit has stated it to me, “If I knew where a poem was going to end up, there wouldn’t be any point in writing it.” Writing is part discovery. Feelings shouldn’t command our writing, but I do try to use the writing to evoke emotions, to add an emotional dimension to the tonal, conceptual, and metrical aspects of the writing. When they all come together (IF they all come together), I feel pure joy.
Alcuin
I don’t agree with you about “It isn’t as if [you’re] writing some great masterpiece”. It certainly is for me. No, this is neither joke nor megalomania. I don’t expect anyone to read my work a century from now, but I do write as if they are going to do so, and I want my work to be good enough to stand that test. If it doesn’t, it’s a disappointment. It is the target, the standard, the benchmark. That benchmark I believe has helped immensely to improve my writing.
Re shoelaces: If you think about it, much of the programming that makes it automatic is based on feeling.
I don’t believe in choosing a purpose at the beginning – at least not an unchanging purpose. As a former professor of English lit has stated it to me, “If I knew where a poem was going to end up, there wouldn’t be any point in writing it.” Writing is part discovery. Feelings shouldn’t command our writing, but I do try to use the writing to evoke emotions, to add an emotional dimension to the tonal, conceptual, and metrical aspects of the writing. When they all come together (IF they all come together), I feel pure joy.
Alcuin
by Alcuin of York on May 1 2007