Dept. of Creation
Monday, 13 January 2025 09:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaffy_rHow Does a Poem Happen?
Back in the 1990s, oh, so long ago, I wrote a fair amount of poetry for myself; not many pieces and most of them short, but they did come into being. Since that time, I haven't written much poetry, if any.
If I had to guess why, I'd say it's because I was putting my creative* efforts into my growing fic output - certainly that was the case after 2006 brought me the revised Doctor Who. But that's only one reason. I think I also lost the urge to write poetry. I can't really parse why and it probably doesn't matter, even if the analytical portion of my brain continues to gnaw at that like a dog does a bone.
The urge hasn't died completely, though, and recently it appears to have awakened from its slumber. In the most recent itration of winter weather here in Chicago, I found myself looking at the melting and freezing snow on the ground outside my windows. It's a common thought for me, one that invites meditation on the nature of micro topographies.
There's nothing in my head that tries to link that topography to the human condition, or to my condition, and perhaps that's why my thoughts haven't previously come together to create poetry. Then again, there's one thing I've learned - finally, and you'd think it would have dawned on me far earlier - is that poetry is about what one writes about and not necessarily about the human condition. (Really, I should have connected the dots far, far earlier, given my appreciation of poetry I've read and appreciated or loved.)
Now that it's dawned on me that this imagery is enough in and of itself to work with, I find myself wondering about how other folks handle their poetry creation process. What do you do, how do you think about what you write about, and how do you integrate imagery of any kind into your work?
* A brief detour into grouchy grammarian country. When the hell did the world start nouning the adjective "creative" when the perfectly good noun "creator" is standing there? Yes, yes, the OED says the adjective got nouned in the early 1900s. All that tells me is that there were language ignoramuses back then as well. And yes, this is a hill I will die on.
*walks away, grumbling about her missing carpet slippers.*
Back in the 1990s, oh, so long ago, I wrote a fair amount of poetry for myself; not many pieces and most of them short, but they did come into being. Since that time, I haven't written much poetry, if any.
If I had to guess why, I'd say it's because I was putting my creative* efforts into my growing fic output - certainly that was the case after 2006 brought me the revised Doctor Who. But that's only one reason. I think I also lost the urge to write poetry. I can't really parse why and it probably doesn't matter, even if the analytical portion of my brain continues to gnaw at that like a dog does a bone.
The urge hasn't died completely, though, and recently it appears to have awakened from its slumber. In the most recent itration of winter weather here in Chicago, I found myself looking at the melting and freezing snow on the ground outside my windows. It's a common thought for me, one that invites meditation on the nature of micro topographies.
There's nothing in my head that tries to link that topography to the human condition, or to my condition, and perhaps that's why my thoughts haven't previously come together to create poetry. Then again, there's one thing I've learned - finally, and you'd think it would have dawned on me far earlier - is that poetry is about what one writes about and not necessarily about the human condition. (Really, I should have connected the dots far, far earlier, given my appreciation of poetry I've read and appreciated or loved.)
Now that it's dawned on me that this imagery is enough in and of itself to work with, I find myself wondering about how other folks handle their poetry creation process. What do you do, how do you think about what you write about, and how do you integrate imagery of any kind into your work?
* A brief detour into grouchy grammarian country. When the hell did the world start nouning the adjective "creative" when the perfectly good noun "creator" is standing there? Yes, yes, the OED says the adjective got nouned in the early 1900s. All that tells me is that there were language ignoramuses back then as well. And yes, this is a hill I will die on.
*walks away, grumbling about her missing carpet slippers.*
no subject
Date: Monday, 13 January 2025 08:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, 16 January 2025 03:47 am (UTC)I'm intrigued by this. Can you break that down for me? (I mean, you don't have to, but yes, I'm intrigued.)
sometimes it comes and sometimes it doesn't.
I think it's important for me to remember that.
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Date: Monday, 13 January 2025 08:57 pm (UTC)K.
no subject
Date: Thursday, 16 January 2025 03:51 am (UTC)You can't say that to a Cubs fan. Heh.
Seriously, though, I'll try to remember your comment about writing whatever I write about.
no subject
Date: Thursday, 16 January 2025 07:12 pm (UTC)Maybe a couple of short ones, andone Buffyverse fic which could be described as a narrative poem.
I'm buying more books of poetry, on average, than I have for a long time, but I get on less and less with spoken poetry, of any kind.
kerk
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Date: Sunday, 19 January 2025 08:58 pm (UTC)This resonates with me, because my mother, who didn't write poetry, nonetheless had a very poetic way with language. I have saved many of her letters to me, and their written beauty is part of the reason why.
Spoken poetry requires both well-written language and a speaker able to shoulder the weight of communicating it to an audience, and I salute those who can do it. But like you, I enjoy reading poetry, and have some books of poetry that I return to intermittently. Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" is one such book.