poetic de-motivation

[KillerMuffin]

*sigh*

I keep getting this stupid idea lodged firmly in my head that I must have some sort of lofty, important theme expounded upon and/or explicated by my poetry. This does two things for me: 1) makes for crappy poetry, and 2) stops me dead in my tracks before I even get started.

I keep going back to Williams' "This Is Just to Say" to point at and sneer at myself over. It's not helping much. Maybe it's just an excuse to prevent myself from writing because I'm afraid it's not good enough. Maybe it's an excuse to stop writing so I can read junk on the internet. Maybe it's me living on Cloud Ideology.

What de-motivates you when it oughtn't? How do you cope?




This Is Just To Say
by William Carlos Williams

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

 

[butters]

best advice i was ever given? "write what demands to be written"

forced poetry is, for me at least, almost always an emotionally empty and unrewarding affair. that de-motivates me. and pressure - pressure is probably the biggest de-motivator i am aquainted with (and often walks hand in hand with that forced aspect). it's not a natural place from which to draw the sorts of inspirations that move me to write, though some thrive on it.

while i have, and do, write from this alien landscape at times, it feels like 'head poems' and, as such, i feel a disconnection with them. i don't think there's one i have written this way that feels like real poetry to me.

how do i cope when de-motivated? simple. i forget about it and go off and do stuff. live my life. then, when the muse is left ignored, she most often arrives fairly quickly to tap me on the shoulder letting me know something's afoot!

 

[fridayam]

I agree with chip. And anyway there is a real beauty in the small and everyday that often gets overlooked yet is deserving of being hymned. Funnily enough by looking at these small things, big ones often emerge unbidden

 

[KillerMuffin]

I'm in the world of "I need three poems from you a week until mid-November and we'll work on revisions, too." De-pressure isn't an option. Unfortunately, I think in abstractions and ideologies, which end up with weirdo poetry no one understand until I stick in didacticisms. Stoopid backwards thinking brain.

Well. I'm off to apply the Third Noble Truth to road kill.

 

[greenmountaineer]

When I feel that way, I turn to parody of myself, which is not always apparent in a poem, except to me. I don't know if it helps my writing, but it does remind me not to take myself too seriously, which I sometimes do and which I like to do.....sometimes.

 

[Angeline]

I'm in the world of "I need three poems from you a week until mid-November and we'll work on revisions, too." De-pressure isn't an option. Unfortunately, I think in abstractions and ideologies, which end up with weirdo poetry no one understand until I stick in didacticisms. Stoopid backwards thinking brain.

Well. I'm off to apply the Third Noble Truth to road kill.

You know that the only response to this is that you must write every day and do what you must to not dwell on doubt. Some of what you write will be crap and some will be wonderful; most will have some potential. Toss the crap and spend some of your next writing session working on what you keep. Part of a writing session on revising, part on new stuff. Personally I break that up across the day because I'm not in the same frame of mind when I compose anew as opposed to when I revise/rewrite.

Anyway the last thing I ever think about when I write is theme and whether or not my subject is weighty enough for a poem. I always figure theme will establish itself, or at least I'll recognize it at some point and be able to revise to support it better. You know that any topic (even plums in the icebox) is capable of producing something meaningful and poetic.

When I need a cheat to get me going I begin with a line from another poem, not necessarily my own. Well almost never my own. It gets me started and then I delete that line.

Nice to see you KM. I saw Lance post on the GB a few weeks ago and wished you were around to torture him, but writing poetry is a way better use of your time.

 

[CharleyH]

You know that the only response to this is that you must write every day.

Sorry that I deleted the rest, Ang, but this is a perfect response. I need to heed your advice.

 

[nerk]

writing every day is, to me, the only way.
yes, a lot of it is crap, but there are some gems in it, and I like to think it is a process of refinement.
it can be a struggle.

My great de-motivator is self-doubt. I agonize over whether things are "good enough" and the answer I always reach is no. The trick for me is to write anyway, and be sullen and surly at anyone who attempts to read anything. If you find yourself thinking "you're not that bad" keep in mind this is an anonymous forum, and (at least here in PF&D) almost freakishly warm and welcoming.
that is my blather about that.

I'm really just putting off writing my stupid du jours.

 

[butters]

the writing every day thing does work for lots of people. i suppose it depends on what suits your nature best.

some days will see me writing everyday, sometimes three, four times a day ... but when i try to push it on days when the itch isn't there, i get rubbish. every time. well, almost.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

To write I often need a shove a kick up the backside, a deadline to keep otherwise I tend to get very lacksidaisical about the whole thing and never bother to make the effort. I'm getting very lazy in my old age

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

*sigh*

What de-motivates you when it oughtn't? How do you cope?

What de-motivates me more than anyything are the brilliant poems that pop up in this forum like vivid flowers. I read them then there's an audible hisssss as my muse deflates.

 

[Angeline]

What de-motivates me more than anyything are the brilliant poems that pop up in this forum like vivid flowers. I read them then there's an audible hisssss as my muse deflates.

And I've had this happen to me when I've read something you wrote. And I know I'm far from alone in that experience, so do try to keep that in mind.

 

[fridayam]

And I've had this happen to me when I've read something you wrote. And I know I'm far from alone in that experience, so do try to keep that in mind.

We've all had that experience, reading the work of others here, I'm sure. But then you go away and think, "wait a minute!......" (And I had a muse who took a twenty year hike: jeez, I hope she had a good time!)

 

[UnderYourSpell]

And I've had this happen to me when I've read something you wrote. And I know I'm far from alone in that experience, so do try to keep that in mind.

and think damn I wish I had written that

 

[normal jean]

*sigh*

I keep getting this stupid idea lodged firmly in my head that I must have some sort of lofty, important theme expounded upon and/or explicated by my poetry. This does two things for me: 1) makes for crappy poetry, and 2) stops me dead in my tracks before I even get started.

I keep going back to Williams' "This Is Just to Say" to point at and sneer at myself over. It's not helping much. Maybe it's just an excuse to prevent myself from writing because I'm afraid it's not good enough. Maybe it's an excuse to stop writing so I can read junk on the internet. Maybe it's me living on Cloud Ideology.

What de-motivates you when it oughtn't? How do you cope?

Hi KM, good to see you

The thing that keeps me from writing is pressure to perform. The time constraints on challenges stops me dead. If I write when it just " comes" to me, my work is so much better.

I have to admit, I have admired your work so much over the years, I know you are a mere human, but your poetry speaks to me and always has. Maybe you are more than a mere human, I wish I had your motivation. It sort of surprises me to hear that you have trouble sometimes. I guess everyone does.

anyway, good luck with your future work and thanks for sharing your thoughts. It has always helped me to know that I am not alone in my frustration, (when it happens).

The thing that helps me cope is reading someone I enjoy, or finding something so totally different it wipes the worry away, then I can return to my own project with fresh eyes.



julie

 

[normal jean]

...............

 

[ninianne]

I think the biggest thing that de-motivates me is that I run myself down. I start off wanting to get something done tomorrow, and then I stay up until 2 finishing my laundry, and the thought of actually sitting down at the computer and writing makes my eyes burn and my head ache. Which wouldn't be so bad if I'd just done it last night, but then there was the night before, and two nights before that, and on Thursday I had to get up for the person who ended up not installing the dishwasher but then my brother and his family stayed over all day so I didn't even get a nap when the baby did.

But, on a more on topic note, I tend not to think about theme as I write. Most themes are so abstract that they don't dig into a person where poems should be felt. What I try to do (and occasionally almost succeed) is to start with an image. Of a tin of ink. Or faces in a window. Or blood on my fingertips. And I try to see what associations I can make--what are the natural consequences of the first image--what other images can I connect (my mind tends to jump, so the second image might have only a fuzzy connection to the first).

And when I start writing, maybe I'll go somewhere I didn't think I would. Sometimes I can't see a connection until I've written it down.

It's only after the poem has a few lines and is going somewhere that theme enters into the picture (not all the time--and not always coherently) and I continue the poem thinking how I can evoke the feeling that is so much a part of the image for me, but now needs to go out into the world and make other people feel without a tangible explanation from the poet who will not be there reading the poem for them.

And all that is much easier to contemplate when I've slept more than 10 hours in the past 72.

 

[The_Fool]

I can't write poetry when tired. I can't write poetry when my emotions are at am extreme. Writers are their own worst critics. Sometimes I think that I should never read any thing else that someone has written, but that is unrealistic. I am me and I write. I need never compare what I do to, say, what that ebul woman Ange writes cuz she always writes so much better.

For me to write I must find the uncommon in the common. Look at a word or phrase and think of how I can twist it until someone says WTF?

Nuff said. I am a hacker anyway and not a poet type.

drubnk too. but that is another story.

 

[Unmasked Poet]

I Think Not

Muffin,

You know that nothing is profound anymore, that everything has been said. Good poetry is like the greeting Hello, 99% of the time it is perfunctory but there is that 1 %. I knew a poet once who wrote a piece tittled "Schadenfraude" it was a simple poem without pyrotechnics. It was plain without being didactic. That was a good poem that was profound without being esoteric. Accessibility is never an issue as long as you are writing how you speak. No matter the device keep your truth. You know this its just like writing prose you have to shake a lot hands just to say hello.

Writers/Poets never get bored with writing just with what they write. Muses are fickle fucks and akin to sirens equal parts heaven and hell. Write from yourself and when the muse comes around bang em till they can't walk. But never think of it as a relationship.