A Writer's Notebook, Day Two-Hundred-And-Twenty-One

It has been a long day, but I did get a poem written in the morning and another this evening, with a third one in the works as well.  I was working on that last, but it will take a bit more finessing to get it right.  I am not sure about it really, I need to think on it a bit more...  Any how, I feel that it has been a productive day in that sense, though a bit fraught in some other ways.

I feel that pushing myself to write more is a very good thing, and making myself do more poetry is a working, I think.  I mean, it is something I enjoy doing in a sense, but getting myself to do it is often difficult, which I don't think is that odd for a lot of creative individuals.  It can be a scary thing, I suppose, in a way, and it can also be something that requires a great deal from the poet in a certain way, if it is to be more than just an exercise.  A poet must be truly present with the work in a way that is often different than in prose, at least for me.

This is not to say that prose doesn't require presence of the writer, but the poem requires the writer to will it into existence in a specific way/  It is the act of making something from the language, not merely using it as a tool to convey ideas.  It is specific to the language being chosen, to the structures and the cadences, to the way each word is seen on the page.  A poem is an object made out of language, while a story exists through the language.  Both may be equally specific but there is, at least for me, a difference. 

At present, I really am happy to be working on the poetry, and I feel that I have some good work coming out of it, really.  Some will require a lot of work, but that is natural.  I do find that I am writing some, at least, that seem to be getting it right for the most part.  I think that, when I am on my stride, I am able to do that occasionally, and I feel quite glad for that.  I many cases, such pieces still require a bit of work, of course, but they are sometimes surprisingly close to the final versions, I think.  This may partly be a result of my doing so much writing in my head to get things perfect before committing to paper, a strategy I developed to cope with my dysgraphia.

Anyhow, it has been an extremely productive day, and I am really happy to have accomplished more than I even planned to try for.  Creative energy and output often feel exponential in that way.

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