Do poets dream of iambic feet?

[Tzara]

Greetings, clever word people!

I was thinking (awright, awright--hey you in the back, cut the laughter or I'm failing you in the course) about where poems come from. In my case, they often, though not always, come from dreams. Or perhaps, more accurately, they come from that drowsy state that is just before sleep or just as you awake from sleep. The genesis of many of my poems has been capturing text as I was half asleep. I wake up enough to jump up and write down the lines and then, later, let the left brain move the words around like chess pieces to build the final form.

I am curious. How do y'all write? Where does your inpiration come from? And do you have any suggestions on how to make that inspiration work better?

Please comment and, of course, have a swell day.

 

[bogusbrig]

I'm quite lucid when I write or I can't be bothered to write and I also find it difficult to write in a passive state of mind like now. The early morning sun is shining and god's in his heaven and all is right with the world. I can't see the point of spoiling a perfectly good day by writing poetry. I'm not one for writing dreamy or poetical poems nor do I tend to like them. 'I wonder angry as a thunderstorm amongst a field of rampant triffids.' or whatever the great poem is.

I have to be intellectually or emotionally stimulated which usually means I'm brooding and angry or pondering some maelstrom of thought. I then just write and edit if necessary or if I can't be bothered, what I have written just gathers dust. I have to admit I don't like the craft of writing which is why it's such a chore to edit and knock what I write into shape but I have the bug, otherwise I wouldn't write at all and just read.

 

[Angeline]

I can write in a dream state or with more lucidity. To me, poetry most often feels like jazz in that it's improvisational. I'll take an idea and just let my conscious mind step aside and pour out whatever comes through. Then I edit.

I usually write anywhere from 3-8 poems a day of varying lengths about whatever is on my mind. Form poems I have to plan (except sonnets--I can write them very quickly) and they take longer, but the free verse stuff I usually produce in about 10 or 15 minutes. I think I've trained my mind--by writing every day for years now--to let this happen.

I used to think that I had to get myself in a certain mental state to write, but I have come to see that belief as a crutch. I think it's possible to write pretty much anything under any circumstance if you believe you can do it.

 

[Liar]

I can write in a dream state or with more lucidity. To me, poetry most often feels like jazz in that it's improvisational. I'll take an idea and just let my conscious mind step aside and pour out whatever comes through. Then I edit.

That's interresting. You think in jazz. I think in music too, but perhaps in the opposite of jazz, the extremely structured world of electronica. It follows very specific patterns and arches, and once you've set a thought in motion, the path it will travel is set and inevitable. I just have to follow it and record the progression. But it never really feels like improvisation. As soon as I see the next line, it is the logic progression from the previous ones.

It's like matematics almost. You can take a single value and make it bloom out into a fractal or you can take a complex formula and calculate the single core value from it. If I have an idea, I can set it rolling and it will grow. If I have a chaotic stream of conscoussness, I can deduct it and find the center of it.

If that made no sense at all, I blame antihistamins.

 

[impressive]

That's interresting. You think in jazz. I think in music too, but perhaps in the opposite of jazz, the extremely structured world of electronica. It follows very specific patterns and arches, and once you've set a thought in motion, the path it will travel is set and inevitable. I just have to follow it and record the progression. But it never really feels like improvisation. As soon as I see the next line, it is the logic progression from the previous ones.

It's like matematics almost. You can take a single value and make it bloom out into a fractal or you can take a complex formula and calculate the single core value from it. If I have an idea, I can set it rolling and it will grow. If I have a chaotic stream of conscoussness, I can deduct it and find the center of it.

If that made no sense at all, I blame antihistamins.

Yes! That's IT exactly. I'm more likely to garden the fractals.

 

[bogusbrig]

That's interresting. You think in jazz. I think in music too, but perhaps in the opposite of jazz, the extremely structured world of electronica.

Interesting that you both liken writing to music. Music is therapeutic, at least for me but writing is just a pain in the arse. Writing is meant to be read and not to be written, well for me that's the case. I can't think of anything so disimilar, though of course all the arts have an intelectual foundation.

Hmm When people can't play an instrument, they tend to admit it and not put other people through the agony of listening to their tortuous efforts. When people write, they seem to think the whole world wants to read their creations.

I wonder why.

 

[Angeline]

That's interresting. You think in jazz. I think in music too, but perhaps in the opposite of jazz, the extremely structured world of electronica. It follows very specific patterns and arches, and once you've set a thought in motion, the path it will travel is set and inevitable. I just have to follow it and record the progression. But it never really feels like improvisation. As soon as I see the next line, it is the logic progression from the previous ones.

It's like matematics almost. You can take a single value and make it bloom out into a fractal or you can take a complex formula and calculate the single core value from it. If I have an idea, I can set it rolling and it will grow. If I have a chaotic stream of conscoussness, I can deduct it and find the center of it.

If that made no sense at all, I blame antihistamins.

I think one of the reasons I fell in love with jazz when I began listening to it some years back is that I realized it is similar to the way I think and write.

Your explanation makes a lot of sense having read your poetry. To me, your poems feel structured, very logical--and yet the language is fresh and often whimsical. In the best way--when I saw you quote Piet Hein in your sig line the first time, I said Aha! because I very much see his influence in the way you write. I wonder how much our culture influences how we write (that's something that fascinates me) because I see that sort of jazzy improv in ee's poetry and in smithpeter's. I often got that quirky sense of structure from Ice and Lin's poetry. Lauren's poems are often edgy, but filled with the lush imagery and sensuality of poets like Paz and Neruda and Pessoa.

Anf I have to say to, you, Bogus that I never find writing a pain in the butt. Writing is the easiest thing in the world to me--it's the rest of life that I find um challenging.

I often sense your hmmm not anger but sort of political (in a very broad sense) foucs in much of what you write.



PS Feel better dear Liar man. I just came off the antibiotic/antihistime bad trip myself. My sympathies, lol.

 

[anonamouse]

Interesting that you both liken writing to music. Music is therapeutic, at least for me but writing is just a pain in the arse. Writing is meant to be read and not to be written, well for me that's the case. I can't think of anything so disimilar, though of course all the arts have an intelectual foundation.

Hmm When people play an instrument, they tend to admit it and not put other people through the agony of listening to their tortuous efforts. When people write, they seem to think the whole world wants to read their creations.

I wonder why.

Right ! now ! ha ha ha ha ha

I am an antichrist
I am an anarchist
Don’t know what I want but
I know how to get it
I wanna destroy the passer by cos i

I wanna be anarchy !
No dogs body

Anarchy for the u.k it’s coming sometime and maybe
I give a wrong time stop a trafic line
Your future dream is a shopping scheme cos i

I wanna be anarchy !
In the city

How many ways to get what you want
I use the best I use the rest
I use the enemy I use anarchy cos i

I wanna be anarchy !
The only way to be !

Is this the m.p.l.a
Or is this the u.d.a
Or is this the i.r.a
I thought it was the u.k or just
Another country
Another council tenancy

I wanna be an anarchist
Oh what a name
Get pissed destroy !

Do I need to quote this, credit this?
Right ! now ! ha ha ha ha ha

mine are thought of in traffic, written at work (instend of working) and require a lot of cigarettes

 

[Rybka]

Phrases and themes may strike at any time, or maybe not.

Rounding them up and driving them to market requires concerted effort and the proper mood.

My muse does not amuse me.

 

[Du Lac]

Hi all..

I believe all find something that speaks to their inner rhythm. Angeline works through jazz, the unstructured freedom flows and it is seen in her work. There are many ways that this can happen if one centers within themselves (which really is not hard lol..)

I can not speak for others but I will relate my own experience. All things have a rhythm. Poetry for me comes from a different place than say if I was working on my book. Classical music is my strongest influence in writing along with the music or beat of nature. If one really thinks about it they are one in the same. The structure of classical I find evolves from nature melding with man's mind. This is the auditory influence for me. When I am influenced in such a manner, automatic writing flows from me. The poem is just there building as a sonata or bird song would. When I dance it is a whole different realm, blues sink into me, sway my body call me to a higher level. Sting and his eclectic variations scream to me and I can not stop my body from responding in a physical poetic dance.

I am also highly influenced by visual aspects. A leaf in the wind will burst open a full fledged poem. A child's tear or the backside of my lover. Artwork is a strong influence for me. When I leave a museum I am usually filled with poetic music.

Touch is overwhelming sometimes. The feel of tree bark will speak to me, Morgan sleeping next to me, breathing causes a poem to flourish, my dogs kisses, rain falling over me. WATER always water ... floating in a pool or taking a shower ... will have me running to the PC to write.

Taste omg ... this is also a strong magic. My mind will fluid with excited verb-age after an overwhelming intense experience with food. textures, taste buds blooming, sizzling, carressing.... so many different beats and flows.

Smell, new grass, flowers, skin after rising from the sea, so many rhythms in the smell of things.. waves and smooth currents.

Then there is the silence, or quietude I call it. This is a spiritual rhythm for me... totally lost in the all of nothing. A sixth sense ... and this is where many of my poems that no one understands come from lol.. my own beat or rhythm melding with the universe. Most of my personal essay writing comes from this place. I call it the knowing place.

So many levels so many influences. I feel this is why a poet or author changes styles many times because as the open more to the all of everything... and nothing... they are influenced by so many variables. We all have our own unique rhythm and we bond with that thing that is close to that beat. For Liar it is Techno, Angeline it is jazz, me classical or nature... I always tell others to find their own beat, feel it and then just let things flow into you. You will always find what works for you to open your creative mind and soul.

du lac~

 

[My Erotic Tale]

iambic feet sounds like a woman with a turbon on,

I like them naked with bare feet myself.

 

[Jennifer C]

iambic feet sounds like a woman with a turbon on,

I like them naked with bare feet myself.

why am I not surprised by that

 

[My Erotic Tale]

why am I not surprised by that

well when I first read that I was wondering if the was bunions...<grin>

 

[Jennifer C]

well when I first read that I was wondering if the was bunions...<grin>

LMAO

Oh Art you crack me up

 

[Liar]

Interesting that you both liken writing to music. Music is therapeutic, at least for me but writing is just a pain in the arse. Writing is meant to be read and not to be written, well for me that's the case. I can't think of anything so disimilar, though of course all the arts have an intelectual foundation.

Well, actually... That's not too far from me. Especially if I write prose. I don't like the process of writing very much. It's tedious, annoyingly slow, and frustrating. It's being done, having written, that is the great part of it.

I think one of the reasons I fell in love with jazz when I began listening to it some years back is that I realized it is similar to the way I think and write.

Your explanation makes a lot of sense having read your poetry. To me, your poems feel structured, very logical--and yet the language is fresh and often whimsical. In the best way--when I saw you quote Piet Hein in your sig line the first time, I said Aha! because I very much see his influence in the way you write. I wonder how much our culture influences how we write (that's something that fascinates me) because I see that sort of jazzy improv in ee's poetry and in smithpeter's. I often got that quirky sense of structure from Ice and Lin's poetry. Lauren's poems are often edgy, but filled with the lush imagery and sensuality of poets like Paz and Neruda and Pessoa.

Hehe, Ice and I are very much alike when it comes to writing. We learned it from the same people pretty much, and have similar tastes in other culture too. Lin is different there, a much more loose cannon and a more whimsical approach to it. Somehow that pays off. She's much better at getting the right thing said than I am. Probably because she can shift perspective more easily and try out different approaches.

Lauren's poetry to me is about presicion. There is never one redundant syllable in her writing (unlike me and you, who get conversational and rambling from time to time). This can be both a good and a bad thing, but it works great for her.

 

[My Erotic Tale]

Well, actually... That's not too far from me. Especially if I write prose. I don't like the process of writing very much. It's tedious, annoyingly slow, and frustrating. It's being done, having written, that is the great part of it.
Hehe, Ice and I are very much alike when it comes to writing. We learned it from the same people pretty much, and have similar tastes in other culture too. Lin is different there, a much more loose cannon and a more whimsical approach to it. Somehow that pays off. She's much better at getting the right thing said than I am. Probably because she can shift perspective more easily and try out different approaches.

Lauren's poetry to me is about presicion. There is never one redundant syllable in her writing (unlike me and you, who get conversational and rambling from time to time). This can be both a good and a bad thing, but it works great for her.

I listen to blues <clapton, SRV> or here of late classical solo guitar <bigrin> great for writing...no word lures just simple soft emotions in sound.

 

[champagne1982]

I am very good in escaping into my writing. If I allow it, the muse will simply whisper a line into my mind or play me the riff of nature as the wind rustles leaves or-- Well, you get the idea.

Words are my playground, writing is coincidental to it.

And yes, everyone should read everything I write ... LOL, the exhibitionist as author, that's me.

 

[Trent_Dutch]

I write (or rather conceive, incubate and gestate), or used to anyway, while walking at night, alone along empty streets and paths. I live in quite a rural area, and used to drink quite alot with a good buddy. Whenever I went over to see him I would walk rather than drive (as I was drinking) there and back, a round trip of around 4 miles. On the way home in the early hours of the morning the streets and roads would be deserted, save for the occasional taxi or police car and the owls that nest in the woods either side of my house. I would always get a flash of inspiration while walking, whether it was for a story or a poem or an academic piece. I would start throwing the words around in my head, cooking up lines and themes and metaphors to use... when I got home I would try to remember as much as I could and get it down. This method rarely resulted in a complete piece, but it seemed to be the only way I could get started... I can never sit myself down and say "I'm going to write a poem"... I always needed that initial flash of the muse I got from an empty bottle and a lungful of cold, fresh air. It provided the initial inspiration for the poem or piece and I would pick it up later or discard it when I had a clearer head.

Something about the walking also reminded me of my wilder days (I can assure you I'm still pretty wild, just not as wild...) from doing the walk of shame (walking home in the morning from the night before) without sleep or a shower or a shave or a change of clothes. When I walked back from my buddies I remembered all the houses and flats I shambled out of at 9am, and more importantly I remembered what had gone on inside those houses or flats before I left.

I haven't written much in quite a while... probably because I haven't walked alone in the dark for a while... Maybe I should try it again. Or maybe I should think of my liver and get a new muse.


Edit: P.S. I love the pun in the title to this thread. P.K. Dick is one of my favourite authors, I used to read him religiously. Now I've ran out of new books of his to buy, so I read old ones again. Somehow he never ceases to amaze and enthral me.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

Lauren's poetry to me is about presicion. There is never one redundant syllable in her writing (unlike me and you, who get conversational and rambling from time to time). This can be both a good and a bad thing, but it works great for her.

Thanks, Liar. You're right, too. My poems are almost always intellectual constructs more than anything, even those where the imagery seems disconnected and random. Especially those, in fact.

To answer to Tzara's question, my poems usually come from strong images or concepts that I pick up here and there. Things I read or hear about, things I see and experience. I don't think dreams were ever involved. Those are just sparks, though. The real pleasure of writing comes from making it all fit in, making every word count. Clockwork.

By the way, Tzara, I cannot believe you wasted a title like "Do poets dream of iambic feet?" on a thread. It should be made into a Same Title Challenge. It's brilliant.

 

[Tzara]

By the way, Tzara, I cannot believe you wasted a title like "Do poets dream of iambic feet?" on a thread. It should be made into a Same Title Challenge. It's brilliant.

Thank you, my dear.

I was thinking instead of a challenge like Don't Cry for Me: A Sestina but perhaps that's too hard.

 

[Tzara]

Clockwork.

(now in progress)

Is a poem just verbal clockwork?

Words fitted like fine tiny gears
that mesh and tick and tock,
and with escapement interlock.

Add a battery or spring
to power the thing
and there, hey look!
it keeps time. Exactly,
or near enough.

You've been peeking!

 

[Lauren Hynde]

Thank you, my dear.

I was thinking instead of a challenge like Don't Cry for Me: A Sestina but perhaps that's too hard.

It would be devilishly demanding, but that's what challenges are for.

 

[Tzara]

I haven't written much in quite a while... probably because I haven't walked alone in the dark for a while...

So go for a walk and write something.

I also get ideas while walking. The rhythm of the movement seems to help refine how things sound.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

I got some pretty good ideas (not so much concerning poetry, but other creative activities) while in the shower. It works as a sort of sensory-deprivation tank. Or overloader.

 

[Liar]

Thank you, my dear.

I was thinking instead of a challenge like Don't Cry for Me: A Sestina but perhaps that's too hard.

Don't cry for me, my sestina,
the truth is I'll never write you.
You're too damn tricky
without assistance.
This I can promise,
so keep your distance.