'Morning, Douglas!
I'm melting in continual instances of "American" songs interspersed with the "oldies"! Pretty much any of the American Songs give me goosebumps---both lyrix and tunes. And now, post-9/11, especially Lee Greenwood's "Stand Up" moves me to tears and fierce joy. I must remember to speak only for m'sel', so here 'tis: I feel DEEPLY the mission and message that I learned early and often in school, in churches and synagogues, at home, at work---about America. The passion I feel is moved aside not one bit by my equally strong rage at our striding off our mark.
Thanks for bringing up the issue, Douglas. I'd wanted to express m'sel' on it, especially today.
"It's cheating to use your technical skill. Poems are given." You say it, and I agree with it, tho often thinking to m'sel' when stuck in an uninspired pome-moment: "Why don't I just try THIS, huh? Just a little bit, just this once . . ." But, damn, it's cheating. So back to the Source (for m'sel', at least, my main Muse).
And, finally, regarding the "neural networks" (created patterns in the brain), Douglas: new neural networks are laid everyday in everyway and for everypurpose. It depends entirely upon one's choice.
Some nice quotes follow.
Blessings,
Judy
~~~~~~
"We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same." (Carlos Castaneda)
"It seems impossible to love people who hurt and disappoint us. Yet there are no other kinds of people." (Frank Andrews)
"The minute I heard my first love story
I started searching for you, not knowing
How blind I was.
Lovers don't finally meet somewhere
they're in each other all along."
(Rumi, translated by Coleman Banks)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Douglas Clark" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, July 04, 2005 8:38 AM
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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