A Writer's notebook, Day One-Hundred-Fifty-Two

I went back to writing the list poems today, though I felt that the one which I wrote had more to it, and it doesn't feel like any sort of loss to do that work.  Indeed, it is more important to be able to take something so simple and view it through the right lens, taking it on as a serious effort in the direction of creating something powerful and interesting. 

In this case, it became rather odd, and somewhat textural in the qualities of the elements included.  I somehow came up with the idea of listing cliches, and used not only specific language, idiomatic cliches or phrases that are just used all the time, but also described a number of different examples of situations or details that are cliche in some sense. In many ways, I think that some of the ideas that are in the list are really interesting.  In some ways, the forms real beauty is in putting things into that category so as to show that particular perspective, while another is about the juxtapositions that exist between items on the list, and other dimensions are found inside how each item can reflect or not some idea.  I think their is actual a lot more going on that I am not yet entirely aware of, and I find the challenge to be not only in the art of bringing items to the list, but in how it works as a cohesive thing, and not only as a set of distinct entries.

It has been quite good to feel that I am getting back to poetry, though it is not yet at the level that I feel it can reach, honestly.  At some point, I know that I'll be able to feel a bit more connected to my poetic imagination, but for now it is still something I've got to push myself to do.  I can recall a time in my life when I was very much driven to write, when it was something that I felt myself compelled to do all the time.  I would spend any time I could writing another poem, and I know that impulse is still inside me, it merely needs me to fan the flames of it a bit.  Getting their in the first place took work, and I know that it will not happen overnight, but I can regain that impulse, especially now that I really can remember it so much more clearly.  It is something that I've missed, as I have said, a very long time, and I am reconnecting with it.

I know it won't happen all at once, but I can feel that I am getting myself back to that place.  That I am making myself write poems daily is a part of pushing that into gear, but I know it needs to be a different thing than just making myself do it, and I am fairly sure that going to the workshop will help to spur me on, and perhaps remind me of something more.  In part, I know having a community of poets will push me to do the work, but I think that it may be that I can use that energy to get going and keep the momentum as I continue forwards.

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