Monday, May 14, 2007

Primal poetry

Today's Mood: Reflective. Today's Music: Shawn Mcdonald: Simply Nothing. Today's writing: editing ch. 4 IFFY and two poems. Today's Quote:
"A good many young writers make the mistake of enclosing a stamped, self-addressed envelope, big enough for the manuscript to come back in.This is too much of a temptation to the editor." Ring Lardner

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First, let me just make the disclaimer that I am not a poet. Nonetheless, sometimes I love to write poetry. It frees me. I think it helps get past my internal editor because of the fact that I write poetry just for me. It's like dancing naked; I don't have to do it well because no one else is going to see it--the delight is just in the doing. Poetry takes place on a more primitive level--for me anyway. Not that it isn't demanding. It is--probably more so than writing novels because I have to pack image, sound, and meaning into few words.

It does make me wonder if I would have similar freedom by working in some other--uncommon for me--genres. I might just have to give it a try next time I'm throttling my internal editor as I try to write this novel.

5 comments:

outdoorwriter said...

Sarah;

I don't write poetry either, but it does make you economize words, finding just the right one, which spills over into other writing.

I read a piece where a guy talked about a "gravid sky." I didn't know the word so looked it up.Means pregnant or full of eggs. Made me wonder about his word choice. Seems a bit of a stretch even if the clouds carried rain.

And me dancing naked is neither entertaining or pleasing to the eye.

smcelrath said...

(laughing) Well, when it comes to the dancing naked thing, it all depends what you mean by entertaining. I have a strong suspicion I might be highly entertaining in a very humorous way--not that anyone will ever know because I fully intend to keep all such dancing to myself. However, I've become braver at sharing my attempts at poetry, so you never do know.

I get the gravid thing. Heavy, swollen, looming. Maybe because I have been pregnant and very much felt like something could burst forth at any moment.

mike stratton said...

Hoo boy,

I'll stay away from the dancing naked stuff.

I never considered myself a poet until several of my poems had been published. Then I thought, "I guess I am." Though I feel unfaithful - so much attention on the novel. I still love reading poetry - espescially Mary Oliver and Billy Collins. My ex-sister-in-law, Laura Kasischke, taught me the value of poetry in story telling. Be in your senses. Waste no words. Appreciate imagery without interpreting it. She didn't say any of this, of course. Its in her writing.

Mike

smcelrath said...

Hey Mike, speaking of poetry, how'd the talk go last Saturday?

mike stratton said...

Sarah,

From my point of view it went pretty well. There were about 20 people in attendance and we were able to get to an exercise on writing poetry. The talk focused on the intersection of dreams (i.e. that deep lake of the unconscious that presents us with an abundancy of imagery), jazz (the tension between structure and improvisation) and poetry. Fun stuff. Carol Finke was illuminating, as usual. And there was an interesting illustration of a writing group.

See you soon.
now listening: Miles Davis

Mike Stratton