I agree with the three day period Frank. Sometimes four for me.
I sometimes think a dirty great switch - left brain, kerchunk, right brain -
would be worth the cost of installation.
Clayton
Frank Parker wrote:
> Hey, y'all, <--lingering colloquialism from a previous life in the American
> south>
>
> I agree with most everything everyone has said about wrtier's block.
> A friend and I talk about the price our jobs/health/stresses exact on that
> creative space that is poetry for us. We agree that for each of us it about
> three days off before the freedom from stresses allows us to entertain that
> space again (itself not a guarantee of a poem in hand).
>
> Then I contrast that with a poet like Michael McClure. I asked him once how
> he writes, what's his routine. He told me he writes four to five hours a day
> every day. His book GHOST TANTRAS was his attempt to write his way out of
> writers block in fact. Point is, he kept writing, grunts and groans and all.
>
> Then there's Diane di Prima and Phil Whalen who journal, journal, journal.
> Diane looked at me once and said, "Don't you keep a notebook next to your
> bed? Don't you write down your dreams?" Well, no.
>
> My daughter has gotten to sending me assignments via email or jotting
> assignments for me on a notepad when she visits. And by her instigation I
> managed a four day journal of free association around my last birthday, an
> idea I'd have thought too vain otherwise. The freedom of journal writing
> allowed me outside the constraints of the poem. I decided "no rules" and let
> all sorts of information into the writing for each day. "No rules" meant
> length of line (could be prose, could be verse), breath, and quantity were
> variable. A good 'loosening up'.
>
> Now, if I could just write a poem.....
> frank
> ***************
> Frank Parker
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> http://now.at/frankshome
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