> Hello Grasshopper,
                    Chip away, by all means. The more the merrier. I don´t really know how I write. Sometimes I get `ideas´ and think about them and test out how they come out on paper, sometimes I discover a phrase in my mind and it grows. I think I´m often aware of a poem´s  taking shape along the lines of some theme of `idea´ that I find interesting. It has happened that phrases and quite extensive pieces of writing have appeared in my mind without me consciously thinking about them. Is this instinctive? I don´t know. My rational mind may be controlling it all. Even if I was able to be fully intuitive I suspect that the same kinds of concerns and ideas would pop out since that´s what in my mind. Perhaps it´s not the subject matter that you object to, though, so much as the presentation. Or perhaps it´s both. I can try to be more instinctive, but I think I would only be deliberately instinctive, which is not the same as the real thing ;-) It´s not something one can really decide to do, is it? to be more instinctive, but I appreciate the advice I guess I´ll just have to live with a repressed voice.




Best wishes,    Mike



> Lähettäjä: grasshopper <[log in to unmask]>
> Päiväys: 2003/11/05 ke PM 07:42:47 GMT+02:00
> Vastaanottaja: [log in to unmask]
> Aihe: Re: New sub: Gift - Christina
> 
> Dear Mike,
>   I hope you don't mind me chipping in here, but my feeling is that if
> someone is too self-consciously analytical while s/he writes, it can stunt
> or stilt the development of a poem.
> I always remember what happened to Tony Hancock, which was a natural comic
> genius. He never thought about what he was doing, he just did
> it -brilliantly. But after a famous interview with John Freeman, who asked
> some probing questions - he started analysing his gift, and his career went
> downhill.
> I don't know how you write, but I suspect that you think too much about what
> you are going to write, rather than letting the writing take over. I don't
> know if this makes any sense to you, but I feel it's like Zen. Once you've
> practicised the techniques, you just have to have the courage and the
> confidence to let it happen. In a way, it may be like learning to turn down
> the signals from the left side of your brain, and letting the more intuitive
> side at least share controls with the rational and logical side.
> I think that may be what Christina meant about Paul's poem -I got a sense
> from it that he let the poem take off, which is why it's so successful.
> This is not the same as an outpouring of emotions, or a lack of distancing,
> but of simply giving a poem its head.
> Kind regards,
>           grasshopper
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Mike Horwood" <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2003 2:37 PM
> Subject: Re: [THE-WORKS] New sub: Gift - Christina
> 
> 
> > I´m sending this again as I think the first sending failed. My apologies
> if it appears twice.
> > >
> >
> > > Hello Christina,
> >                   Thanks for your further thoughts on this one. You raise
> some interesting points, as always. The point about being distanced from
> emotions is one of them. I think I would say, off the top of my head, that I
> would always be in some sense distanced from emotions when I write. I think
> this topic has come up before. My own position ( which may be misguided and
> is open to revision) is that most writers are unlikely to produce their best
> work as an outpouring of emotion. I don´t know if that´s exactly what you´re
> saying here, but I would expect that Paul´s Tractor poem, real, obsessive
> and driven as it is, was probably the product of careful thought and a
> distanced, critical, reasoning perception. I may be wrong, and Paul may put
> me right, but that would be my guess. Of course, I don´t mean to suggest
> that being distanced guarantees a good or effective poem. From a poor poet
> it may produce a frigid one, and that is perhaps what you mean by
> `repressed´. Of course, in a sense Gift is all in the head (whose?) and is
> about repression since that is where one ends up if one´s desires are
> expressed only through the imagination. I was interested that you commented
> that Gift was (too) tidy and made sense. Did you find that the ideas I later
> explained really did come across? As far as I can identify my own voice at
> all I think of it as rather obsessive and perhaps repressed fits too,
> perhaps even better. In fact, I rather like the idea of producing a large
> body of really repressed poems, something really claustrophobic. I think I
> would call the collection Orchids from the Hothouse. I have now ramboled far
> enough and will sign off.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Best wishes,   Mike
> >
> >
> > > Lähettäjä: Christina Fletcher <[log in to unmask]>
> > > Päiväys: 2003/11/04 ti PM 04:06:51 GMT+02:00
> > > Vastaanottaja: [log in to unmask]
> > > Aihe: Re: New sub: Gift
> > >
> > > Fischl (or Kahlo if we're talking big bloomers) takes huge risks in
> paint.
> > > His imagery (some of which relates so directly to yours) isn't beating
> about
> > > the bush at all but it still works on many levels (including humour).  I
> don't
> > > think you're getting what you're talking about across in your poem yet.
> It's
> > > still very much in your own head.  I get that feeling with your musical
> chairs
> > > poem too.
> > > I think Paul's Tractor poem's a good example of taking risks.  It feels
> real,
> > > obsessive and not concerned with whether it makes 'sense'.  With yours,
> I
> > > feel that there's a distancing from (your own) emotions: they're that
> bit too
> > > tidy, too intelligent and (dare I say?) repressed.
> > > Oh well, I'd better get back to the ward and take my medication...
> > > bw,
> > > christina
> > >
> > > > >Great. Thanks a lot for this, Christina. I forgot to say in my
> earlier
> > > > reply that I didn´t know the painting. Yes, it´s very appropriate,
> isn´t it,
> > > > even down to the bowl of fruit. Pity there isn´t a large and lurid
> orchid as
> > > > well. It´s maybe taking comparison too far, but if I had to delineate
> where this
> > > > painting and my poem do and don´t overlap I would say that my male
> figure is
> > > > not `really´ there in the room.
> > >
> > >
> >
>