Two additional points jump into my head.
1.Joanna is good at metaphor.
2. The Scottish word for poet is 'makar' (maker).
Douglas Clark, Bath, Somerset, England ....
http://www.dgdclynx.plus.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Douglas Clark" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, July 04, 2005 1:38 PM
Subject: Re: poem & Losing the Muse
>I didnt write between 76 and 82. It just fizzled out and disappeared then
>came back strong. But now I have been fizzling out since 96 and finally
>stopped last year. I do have plenty of material in mind but the words arent
>there.
>
> To explain to Judy about writing poems. You are given words which pop into
> your head and you have to work on them to fashion them into a poem. It is
> very rare to be given a poem entire but it does happen. If the words dont
> pop into your head it is cheating to use your technical skill to make the
> poem. Poems are given.
>
> And Joanna mentioned the divine. As I have spent my life in science I am
> naturally an atheist but believe that evolution has programmed us for
> religion thus you cannot ignore the spiritual aspect. Heaven and hell are
> easily traceable back to the shamans getting high on drugs. But where the
> words for poems come from is a deep mystery. Patterns are laid down in the
> brain in neural networks in the early years of life and I dont think these
> patterns can be altered later in life. That is why when we fall in love we
> repeat the earlier mistakes. And why we are very restricted in our choice.
> And it is out of deep patterns like these that poetry comes. The key to
> poetry is metaphor eg Plath and making connections. This is much easier if
> you are slightly or entirely deranged. Simply if you cant do metaphor you
> cant do poetry and I am not very good at it.
>
> But my mind is wandering now so I had better go and have a coffee.
>
> And a British story. On the radio this morning was this strident female
> American minister extolling the joys of 4th July and the US. So they put
> on Paul Simon singing the wonderful American Tune as the next record.
> Douglas Clark, Bath, Somerset, England ....
> http://www.dgdclynx.plus.com
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Joanna Boulter" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, July 04, 2005 12:34 PM
> Subject: Re: poem & Losing the Muse
>
>
>> How interesting this is becoming! I agree with Andrew about the fallow
>> periods. I wrote compulsively between the ages of about 4 to 22; after
>> that, nothing for 12 whole years. This period coincided firstly with
>> health and career problems, and then with the entire duration of my first
>> marriage. Then, suddenly, mid-thirties, back it comes and considerably
>> better, and it's gone on improving so it seems for nearly thirty more
>> years. (Dunno about 'notable', yet, but I'm working on it.) The
>> interesting thing was that, although I was familiar with that 'not after
>> 25' dictum, *as an absolute*, and agonised horribly over it, I still
>> always saw myself as a poet who for some reason wasn't writing just then.
>>
>> Actually, I'm not convinced a poet doesn't *need fallow periods, where
>> interesting renewal stuff can go on under the surface. Write docos? A
>> woman does the ironing, or cooks something, or if her hands are more
>> flexible than mine are these days, knits. Patrick digs his allotment.
>>
>> I would not put it past Douglas to wake up at 70 with a totally new and
>> brilliant poetic voice.
>>
>> best joanna
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Andrew Burke" <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>> Sent: Monday, July 04, 2005 7:23 AM
>> Subject: Re: poem
>>
>>
>>> Judy asked, >can a poet truly lose the Muse?
>>>
>>> Now, this Romantic concept of muse is amusing. I trot it out
>>> occasionally
>>> when I am in full egotistical, creative or randy flight, but I don't
>>> truly
>>> believe in it. It's one of those tidy concepts inherited from our
>>> forefathers&mothers to explain their exalted position above the rest of
>>> the
>>> tribe. The tribe's songs were considered, of course, museless, born
>>> merely
>>> of the wrack and fiddle of their everyday lives. Now 'wrack and fiddle'
>>> are
>>> the cornerstone of our poetic, both academic and tribal. Well, mostly.
>>> Some
>>> grandiose strutters try on an elevated tone, but stuff them.
>>>
>>> Many a volume has been written about the muse, and 'her' many
>>> manifestations. I too love the concept of 'a poet must be in love' to
>>> write.
>>> Is there overlap here? I think not. I am often in love in a romantic and
>>> sexually charged way, and sonnets and sequences pour forth. (SPAM emails
>>> arrive offering me excess.) In between such episodes, my love for my
>>> family
>>> suffices, and love for nature, etc - music and words themselves also. I
>>> see
>>> love not as the opposite of hate bu the oppsite of fear. Yes, confidence
>>> comes into it.
>>>
>>> I write verse for others. I write poetry for myself, in any genre.
>>> Sometimes
>>> they come together; sometimes this is good.
>>>
>>> Lose the ability to write poetry? Yes, I can see that happening. I've
>>> had my
>>> very fallow periods when I would then turn my hand to writing a doco or
>>> an
>>> article or somesuch. (The quickest way back to poetry is to give my
>>> something to write for 'duty' - I will studiously avoid it by writing
>>> poetry!) I believe the body has a lot to do with it - how fit you are.
>>> When
>>> I walked into the wind shouting my poems at the world as a young
>>> 'Beatnik' I
>>> was fit by dint of my age and compulsary school sports. In middle age,
>>> torn
>>> and bewildered by excesses of drugs and alcohol over many years, I wrote
>>> little and that little was crap in the main. Oh, some people create a
>>> forumula for their work and keep it going into old age through decades
>>> of
>>> unfitness - but they are merely echoing themselves. The public might buy
>>> it,
>>> even the academics, but true poets progress as they go ...
>>>
>>> Writing poetry is a physical thing, just as the brain is a muscle. Some
>>> attributes of life slow down with age - mainly due to our rotten
>>> lifestyles - so our impetus to write also suffers. It is not a time to
>>> read
>>> more or go to the library for more research. It is time to exercise more
>>> and
>>> eat more vegetables! Then the ozygen will again return to the upper
>>> chambers
>>> and there revitalise our language and its expression.
>>>
>>> When I was in my mid-thirties, worried about Death and such, I slumped
>>> in a
>>> lounge chair and saw a program on a Balinese artist, Lempard or Lempad
>>> was
>>> his name. He lived until well over 100 and changed his style of art at
>>> various decades right up until his nineties! I will go Googling to find
>>> more
>>> about him. Suffice it to say he was an inspiration to me and I got out
>>> of
>>> that lounge chair and changed my ways. With various lapses into an
>>> unhealthy
>>> way of life, I've been aware of my body's influence on my writing output
>>> ever since.
>>>
>>> Cheers -
>>>
>>> Andrew
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