A Writer's Notebook, Day Three-Hundred-And-Seventy-Nine
One of the great advantages of writing so many poems each day is that it does serve as a good outlet for certain feelings, but it always moves past that. Now, it may well be that the first poem I write in a day is just me complaining, or attempting to express some particular aspect of a current problem. It may not be anything more than my own thoughts on the issue in language, and it might not be very good as a piece of art.
However, I am never writing just one poem. What tends to happen is, I finish work on that piece and a part of my mind thinks, well, I can't do that again. It is a conscious choice, in part, though one I could not necessarily reach without having purged the feelings first. Looking at the first poem, I am a bit ashamed at times, or perhaps it is mere embarrassment. That is a large part of the motivation, as I want to move towards work I find more fulfilling and which I won't look back on immediately after writing with the same kind of response.
After I have written one poem, the next is almost invariably going to be different. Even if I choose to stay with some subject connected to my current emotions, which I often do, it changes. Either, I am doing it from a much altered perspective, which provides a universality, or I have shifted my approach so as to make the work less about a specific of my life. This can be a shift towards a metaphor, at times, while at others it may be changing to a different narrative voice, perspective, or approach .At other times, I will find a new or different idea that is unrelated to the first poem takes my interest. What is interesting is the times that these new ideas turn out to actually be connected, as if they are just alternate approaches to the same destination.
In this way, just by being committed to the work I am doing, I am able to help press past the basic, superficial things I might otherwise spend more time on in my writing. As a bonus, moving past whatever is obsessing or troubling me in order to write often helps to shift my perspective overall, so I find that doing the work is itself probably a good way for me to help myself through difficult times.
However, I am never writing just one poem. What tends to happen is, I finish work on that piece and a part of my mind thinks, well, I can't do that again. It is a conscious choice, in part, though one I could not necessarily reach without having purged the feelings first. Looking at the first poem, I am a bit ashamed at times, or perhaps it is mere embarrassment. That is a large part of the motivation, as I want to move towards work I find more fulfilling and which I won't look back on immediately after writing with the same kind of response.
After I have written one poem, the next is almost invariably going to be different. Even if I choose to stay with some subject connected to my current emotions, which I often do, it changes. Either, I am doing it from a much altered perspective, which provides a universality, or I have shifted my approach so as to make the work less about a specific of my life. This can be a shift towards a metaphor, at times, while at others it may be changing to a different narrative voice, perspective, or approach .At other times, I will find a new or different idea that is unrelated to the first poem takes my interest. What is interesting is the times that these new ideas turn out to actually be connected, as if they are just alternate approaches to the same destination.
In this way, just by being committed to the work I am doing, I am able to help press past the basic, superficial things I might otherwise spend more time on in my writing. As a bonus, moving past whatever is obsessing or troubling me in order to write often helps to shift my perspective overall, so I find that doing the work is itself probably a good way for me to help myself through difficult times.
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