A Writer's Notebook, Day Five-Hundred--And-Eighty-Seven

I have spoken many times, by now, of the challenges I have had writing during this pandemic.  On one hand, it is important to write in spite of these events, but it is also impossible to do anything genuine without confronting the reality that this is the world right now.  To ignore the pandemic would be to produce work that was not only irrelevant, but so detached from reality as  have no real meaning or value.  Of course, I can write about my current experiences, but that does not seem, in general, to produce work of real value.  For one thing, much of what I am writing is likely not beyond the thoughts and obsessions of any person today.  I do not know the value of such work, and it is also not really the work I want to be doing, if I am honest.

How do I, then, find a way to create genuine work that is based in the current reality but not overwhelmed by it?  It sounds very silly to say how do I make this into art, but that is essentially it, I think.  For me, the more specific question has been: what kinds of myths are relevant to this world?  I mean, of course, the myths that exist already, but even more, the ones that need to be given form.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Poem: Neighborhood Inhabitants

Neighborhood Inhabitants There was a fox once, and another time, otters, and now a peacock that we think got lost during one of the storms. She stays down on the other end of the street, though, does not visit us. We have a racoon family that stays in our tree some nights, and there is a baby lizard, a brown basilisk, who we have seen several times. It is not supposed to be here, is invasive and troublesome to the local ecosystem, as are the duck.  I hear there are giant snails now who eat stucco or concrete or something of that sort. I have not seen one, though, I just heard they are here and big as my fist.
Read more

A Writer's Notebook, One-Thousand-Eight-Hundred-And-Seventy-Three

I am still finding it difficult to get back to a more productive work schedule at the moment.  In part, I am sure it is that I gave myself permission to slack off a bit, and it is difficult to walk that back, especially because I am still writing and being productive, even if not to the same degree. I know it would be good to get back to doing more writing, but I also know that I am still meeting my core obligations, even if at a more minimal level.  Really, I just need to make the choice and force myself to stick to it.  To that end, I am planning to at least get back to work on my longer projects again tomorrow, even if I don't increase the poetry output right away.
Read more

A Writer's Notebook, Day One-Thousand-One-Hundred-And-Thirty-Three

I received my acceptance to attend workshop at the Palm Beach Poetry Festival next year and am very excited to be working with Matthew Olzmann, a poet whose work I have admired for some time.  He has a rare capacity for being simultaneously absurd and serious in ways that are hysterical, but with devastating insights underneath.  I feel quite fortunate to have the PBPF, and can say, honestly, that each workshop I have attended there has been incredible.  As a person who has taken many workshops in my life, and who often finds them wanting, I am always astounded at the caliber of the classes at the festival, both in the instruction and in the community of poets I have encountered.  I only wish it could be more than just one week out of the year.
Read more