I don't know what it is; but when it's there, sometimes it's not me at all. It's as though someone else has moved inside me. I just wish they'd stay longer. I like them so much better than me.
cal
-----Original Message-----
From: Poetryetc provides a venue for a dialogue relating to poetry and
poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Joanna Boulter
Sent: Monday, 13 March 2006 8:00 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Inspiration
Inspiration?
The spark that lights the fire in the forge where we make things.
Personally, I find the word 'inspiration' rather too conscious, and prefer
to use the term 'spark' wherever possible. I know this is rather a cop-out,
but it's a personal oddity of mine and I'll probably go on doing it.
joanna
----- Original Message -----
From: "Roger Day" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, March 12, 2006 8:46 PM
Subject: Re: Inspiration
"Self-knowledge protects us from inspiration; inspiration, like sexual
desire, undoes us. For non-believers, inspiration is more like sexual
desire than anything else; a fascination, a fear, and something we
think of as having a secret solitary pleasure attached to it."
umm. this is the opposite for me. All my recent poetry has been built
on self-knowledge, the results of analysis, the playing out of
metaphors gained thereof.
Inspiration for me is a stone-cold killer. I have no emotion when it
comes. the less emotion the better. I view it as a third party, a dead
fish. If I do feel in that moment, or past the moment, then I know the
result is crap. If I have *any feeling at all for the subject, no
matter how personal, then I cannot become, be that subject. I have to
reduce the positivity to a minimum. This is true for me whether it's
poetry - a concentration state of epic proportions - or
drawing/painting.
No matter my feelings for the subject, I have to lose it for the work.
It's a matter of shapes, landscape, metaphor, analogy, words. If I
have any pre-conceptions, a view of the I of the subject, a connection
with the subject, then the drawing/poem fails, descends into
sentiment, and I've been there but only deliberately. I hope.
I can see parallels with Doug saying "lose the pronouns". I'm in the
business of distancing btn myself and the subject. A ship that lets go
the tugs, and enters the ocean.
Anything that gets in the way only lessens the impact of the result.
Roger
On 3/12/06, Alison Croggon <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Long piece in the Grauniad about artistic inspiration, with comments with
> people from Steve Reich to Andrew Motion -
>
> http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1728929,00.html
>
> So, what inspires you? Or is it all rubbish?
>
> Best
>
> A
>
>
>
> Alison Croggon
>
> Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
> Editor, Masthead: http://masthead.net.au
> Home page: http://alisoncroggon.com
>
--
http://www.badstep.net/
http://www.cb1poetry.org.uk/
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