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
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Frank Parker
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http://now.at/frankshome
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