Muse-Bringer? Fresh-Maker? Mentos?

[PandoraGlitters]

What gets you charged up and ready to write? Is it a hot bath, a cold jog, a letter from a friend? A trip to the sex toy catalog? Do you have a regimine? Do tell!

I usually write after work or after play and I can tell a definite difference in the tone of my poems based on what I was doing prior to writing (i.e. reading the newspaper). What have been the circumstances for you prior to writing your best poems?

 

[bflagsst]

TV shows where people are talking about clothes, or food, or how to do something is necessary background noise for me when I'm stuck. They'll end up saying something real simple yet unique and I'll use it for the first line or idea of a poem. The show's gotta only be slightly interesting for me to pull a line, cuz if i'm paying too close attention I overlook the creativity of human speech. The Learning Channel is perfect for it, cuz every show is basically boring, yet slightly informative. So I guess the state is day-dream about anything but writing with the tv on and my Other not paying attention or peeking at me.

 

[champagne1982]

What gets you charged up and ready to write? Is it a hot bath, a cold jog, a letter from a friend? A trip to the sex toy catalog? Do you have a regimine? Do tell!

I usually write after work or after play and I can tell a definite difference in the tone of my poems based on what I was doing prior to writing (i.e. reading the newspaper). What have been the circumstances for you prior to writing your best poems?

When I sink into empathetic understanding I seem to create some good ones or when I think on possibilities. This most often occurs either in the early morning (now...) or around noon. The rest of my time's spent being awake .

 

[UnderYourSpell]

I write reams in my head in bed then forget it by the morning ........ yeah I know pen and paper by the bed. But by the time I've found my specs turned the light on woken the husband got groused at ..... well you get my drift

 

[annaswirls]

Misery works for me. Sometimes.

Keeping a healthy aspiration for things that are outside my grasp.

Living with a certifiable crazy person. (besides myself)

Anything that strikes me as unusual as I move through the world.

Falling in love. With anything.

Reopening wounds until they are scars.

Teasing out things that do not make sense to me until I understand them. This takes years.


Interesting sounding word combinations that I hear.

Usually I just close my eyes and type as it comes-- with hope that my fingers are still on the right keys or it comes out like this

yhis is yje winyer or out fidcvonyent.

 

[annaswirls]

I just realized I did not answer the question.


I write best when I am in the point before sleep. I think because I am too tired to do anything else and I am forced to just sit there or go to bed. I hate going to sleep. It feels like failure to me. When I am sleepy it is easier to get into the honesty center in my mind.... not that other times I am dishonest, just harder to accept the truth whatever it may be... when I am busy and moving quickly.

I cannot write forms when I am sleepy. It is harder then for me to be open wide and vulnerable, which is why I suppose my forms are less emotional. Maybe I should write it all out when I am sleepy and then turn it into form when I am focused.


The best clarity, I find, comes when I am in a bit of a blur.

 

[hmmnmm]

Interesting topic. A difficult one to reply to, unless I can be forgiven for turning it inside out a little. Like, once in It, what takes you out? What are the killers, allergens, poisons? Those are many and I never seem to learn. Some of them, I swear if I go there or do them, even though I know it will be a mistake, but I don't listen to what I know is true, and it's like a big old hornet struck me between the eyes and I can feel its stinger like a hypodermic, and the poison filling my head, and the feel is gone, the stream is polluted, and the flowers wilt. A long walk in the clear mountain air seems to be a no-fail antidote. Catching an old Green Acres episode can work wonders too.

 

[bflagsst]

...Catching an old Green Acres episode can work wonders too.

lol. That was unexpected. What sort of poetry does Green Acres 'arouse' in you?

 

[hmmnmm]

lol. That was unexpected. What sort of poetry does Green Acres 'arouse' in you?

not necessarily or strictly poetry, but being released from the general fear of inserting whatever incongruity that pops up, since it came out for a reason and I too often distrust, hesitate, doubt, second-guess, which becomes immediate fertile ground for Seriousness to seed and sprout... which doesn't seem to negatively affect a lot of people, but for some reason I can't tolerate it very well. But it has a pleasant taste, at first, so... it's a tough influence to stay clean of.

 

[PandoraGlitters]

TV shows where people are talking about clothes, or food, or how to do something is necessary background noise for me when I'm stuck. They'll end up saying something real simple yet unique and I'll use it for the first line or idea of a poem. The show's gotta only be slightly interesting for me to pull a line, cuz if i'm paying too close attention I overlook the creativity of human speech. The Learning Channel is perfect for it, cuz every show is basically boring, yet slightly informative. So I guess the state is day-dream about anything but writing with the tv on and my Other not paying attention or peeking at me.

Very interesting, particularly the "simple yet unique" part. Yay for the Learning Channel!

 

[PandoraGlitters]

When I sink into empathetic understanding I seem to create some good ones or when I think on possibilities. This most often occurs either in the early morning (now...) or around noon. The rest of my time's spent being awake .

I spend far too much of my time being awake. Thanks for sharing about your muse, Champ.

 

[PandoraGlitters]

The best clarity, I find, comes when I am in a bit of a blur.

I wonder if this is why so many writers turn to booze and opium? Actually I loved your answers about where you look for inspiration. The "opening wounds until they are scars" sounds familiar to me as one thing that has informed my own process.

Also interesting conversation, Hmmnmm and bflagsst. Who'd have thunk of Green Acres as having curative properties?

 

[hmmnmm]

there was a scene break to the city, and there was the skyline, and then like a docu-commercial there was a message at the bottom that asked the viewer something "do you know what city this is?" and then said, "if you guessed New York you were correct."

First reaction is 'huh?' Second reaction is, Yeah. That.

 

[bflagsst]

not necessarily or strictly poetry, but being released from the general fear of inserting whatever incongruity that pops up, since it came out for a reason and I too often distrust, hesitate, doubt, second-guess, which becomes immediate fertile ground for Seriousness to seed and sprout... which doesn't seem to negatively affect a lot of people, but for some reason I can't tolerate it very well. But it has a pleasant taste, at first, so... it's a tough influence to stay clean of.

once upon a time you dressed so fine, you threw the bums a dime--now didn't you?

 

[hmmnmm]

heh, close, 'cept I've usually been the dimeless, heh

 

[annaswirls]

So ever since I was a little girl, I have kept a journal.

As I grew, my journal became almost like a lover? I would write this unknown entity, not as a keeper of memories, thoughts, ideas, but as if I were writing to a person.

I just realized tonight that a person who I have been writing to has become that lost entity, my "you"

And that is what I guess I need.

Some unattainable perfection, in all of his flaws that cannot disappoint because he does not exist.

So for a very short while, it lived. He lived. I think. But it doesnt matter. I just hope those who know, know that I do not think it was ever that real, ever that much, ever that anything. I have been writing to him since 4th grade. He did not have a moustache then.


It is late, I am not making sense.

But I have to wait, until everyone is asleep, even the machines have stopped rinsing and spinning and I can close my eyes no one popping in to offer me a tidbit of news or

you know


sleep

overrated


zzzzzzz

 

[annaswirls]

I wonder if this is why so many writers turn to booze and opium? Actually I loved your answers about where you look for inspiration. The "opening wounds until they are scars" sounds familiar to me as one thing that has informed my own process.

It is almost like you have to keep working on them until it either makes sense or doesn't matter anymore.....



booze and opium
and waiting until the house is filled with snores from every room....

 

[UnderYourSpell]

Do you ever feel like there is this momentous poem/story whatever and it's just out of reach by maybe just a millimetre if only you could focus long enough for it to get to your fingertips and be written down?

 

[Angeline]

Do you ever feel like there is this momentous poem/story whatever and it's just out of reach by maybe just a millimetre if only you could focus long enough for it to get to your fingertips and be written down?

Yes. Perennially lol. And usually I write and feel like I've danced around what I really want to say but haven't got to the heart of the matter. So I tinker and sometimes, in that tinkering, I can get myself to a state where I can actually visualize what I want to convey--not the words but the thing itself. And then I start asking myself which words most precisely convey that thing? Sometimes I feel like I can capture those rascally evasive words and the poem is better for it. Sometimes not. And sometimes magic happens, and the poem comes out exactly the way I want on the first try.

But to answer the OP's question, I feel I do my best writing when I plan a time to write and I have a certain emotional distance from what I'm writing about. If I'm angry or sad or upset, it may have a muse-like effect on me, but the first draft will be too cluttered up with my emotion, ends up sounding too angsty. I need a certain remove and objectivity to get it right.

I often get ideas for poems when I'm driving or meditating, doing something where I'm not exactly focused on my thoughts. Listening to music is very evocative for me, and I almost always write listening to music. I feel like it helps the rhythm of my poetry, gives it a more lyrical quality.

Sometimes I'll get an idea from tv or something I'm reading, but not when I'm doing the actual watching or reading, but later when I'm thinking about it. And reading poetry, especially poetry here, is a very muse-like experience for me. A lot of times my poem will be a reaction to someone else's poem I've read here. It's one of the reasons I love this place so. And certain poets, I've found, really affect me that way. One of the reasons I muchly miss Tathagata is because his poetry almost always inspires me to write my own. Now I have to go chasing his poems down elsewhere to get that....but it's not really the same.