Are they intuitive, say you are just sitting and the words come into your mind, or do you set out with a subject in mind and then compose the words? I have to say I envy people who can sit down and say now I will write a poem about thus and such. I am pretty much catch as catch can. What do you do? And the rhyming! My God (in the south we would say My GAWD!)
2012-04-09T19:15:46Z
Actually Sue, a very interesting and telling answer. I envy the waiting for it to come.
2012-04-09T19:22:15Z
Oh and in my next life - I will not be a teenage poet. I have not incurred that much bad karma. Maybe a butterfly, a daffodil or a hummingbird. Yes, that is nice. Whew! What a close call.
2012-04-09T19:25:49Z
John! Where the hell have you been? Do you build memory mansions? I never got the hang of it myself. Gosh Darn It.
2012-04-09T19:34:13Z
Oh and John funny you should say that - because of course writing takes some life out of you - but then - if it is good when you re-read the life comes flooding back. I have found unsatisfactory words are the most draining things. There you had it, but you tried and could not express it and it just turns into a long sigh.
2012-04-09T19:50:31Z
John, you shouldn't delete. I have often wondered about what makes you do that - some absolute perfectionism thing you have going on. When, in fact, you are such a damn fine writer. Deleting - Pffft!
2012-04-09T19:53:37Z
LC = aren't we good! I love us too! Good writers! Yayyyyayyy!
Jrahdel2012-04-09T19:19:27Z
Favorite Answer
Beth, all I can say is I don't know what 'writers block' is. If something comes, and I'm not around pencil, I use mnemonic devices to remember, if it's a good idea, that is. Do you ever feel writing a lyric takes a bit of life from you?
Edit--It's just when you least expect it--those are the best. I do practice in descriptive writing (remember my poem about the cardboard box?).
Isn't it funny that what you like yourself, no one else does. I don't get it. My drafts remain busy, though, and my delete button is wearing down.
I just finished another villanelle. I could post it for an hour.
It's a combination of ab-libbing, setting off a chain reaction. Ive composed the middle or ending of a poem, then built around it. Sometimes a poem grows from a single line. Often its a fragment, a feeling I remember from my past. Often it's the residue Very few poems are intended to be about me personally, but my psyche naturally channels in. Almost always it's someone I've come in contact with. I never use a thesaurus or dictionary but do use a rhyming dictionary.
Generally, some abstract concept will be seeding itself in me so I find a title and take it from there, often displeased or surprised or amused at its` development..
Sometimes it`s something I`ve been dwelling upon at another time, or now. Different now the pc rather than the pen - more ad-hoc.
I re-write, from the c/c`s I`m glad to have, if I consider the result`s worthy of improvement for the book. I tire quickly and then `run on empty` (you`ve doubtless seen those!). Many emotion-thought-seeds waft from you all here. And this is it, Beth. xxx
I often admire people who are able to re-purpose things. People who take ordinary objects and use them in such a clever and unique way that it almost exceeds the usefulness of its original intention. Or chefs that can use the very same ingredients that I have in my pantry to create the most amazing food. I write simply because I love words. I love how you can bend and shape the way words sound or twist their meaning. I'm intrigued by the arrangement of words and how their effectiveness is so greatly affected by the order in which they are placed, or by the way they are associated. Words are melodic, percussive, invoke thought, movement, and arouse feelings and senses in ways that are almost magical. Most people read poetry the same way they read the newspaper; completely unaware an unprepared. When I write, I try to present an idea in an unexpected way.
sometimes I'll write pages and pages of anything then sift through it to find a general theme to create a story, sometimes I'll hear a line in my head and proceed to write from that sometimes it is much easier I write about something I've lived Sometimes I write something down then come back to it days or weeks later