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As I may have stated elsewhere on this blog, I am one of those odd-ball people who likes to read and write poetry.

For me, poems do not need to have end rhymes, but they do need to have rhythm and repetition, alliteration and assonance. Most importantly, they need to be understandable and relatable. I cannot stand stream-of-consciousness poems that have meaning only to the poet. I can’t read it and I sure can’t write it.

Who are some of my favorite poets who embody this clarity and economy of words–the poets who tell me stories to which I can relate?    Some include Naomi Shihab Nye, Mary Oliver, Maya Angelou, Carolyn Forche’, Matsuo Basho, Edgar Allan Poe, and William Shakespeare.

This morning I came across this video of Nye reading one of my favorite poems followed by an explanation of her process.  I felt compelled to share it.

More to come on poetry.

No Words

Awestruck seems like an inadequate word to describe the images coming through the James Webb Space Telescope. I am reminded of the scene from the movie Contact where Jodie Foster’s character Dr. Arroway says “No words….They should have sent a poet.”    I agree.

Input vs Output

It may seem that I have fallen off the 60-day writing program I put myself on.  I have not. It has just been that the day job with its incessant output of email writing required of me has left me so mentally exhausted that I am incapable of putting together coherent sentences of personal “creative” writing.   It occurs that one’s expressive output cannot happen every day without a rest.   Furthermore, there needs to be a certain amount of input to fuel the output.  

I suppose that such a refueling could be binge-watching old I Love Lucy episodes (well, actually lately for me it’s been The Big Bang Theory) or watching endless hours of cat videos on Youtube (actually for me it is cooking videos).   But instead the best way I have chosen to refuel is re-reading (or rather re-listening to) Anne Lamott’s book on writing, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life.   I consider this one of the best books on writing ever written.

Here’s a little something to uplift you.

Journaling

Today I journaled about death, regret, grief, saying goodbye and a lot of negative self-narrative.  It was way too overwhelming to write, let alone post, but my journal is a good place to contain such raw emotions.  Again, I’m not posting that entry, but I offer this Ted Talk instead, a raw, emotional share on the healing power of writing.

 

This Spoke to Me Today

Marge Piercy is a favorite poet of mine. Here is a poem that spoke to me today. I turn to it every time I’m feeling a little defeated. It is best heard, rather than read.

Day 198: Flow

I was actually searching YouTube for something completely different and I stumbled across this Ted talk about artistic flow. It resonated with me, so this is going to be a permanent addition to my Ted Talk collection .

Day 99: Juneteenth

I hope most of you know what this day is about, but if you do not, here it is:

Are we almost there? Not even close.
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2020/06/19/rdp-friday-almost/

 

Day 65: Empathy with Wild Geese

Another daily practice I have commenced during this time to keep me grounded is to, among other things, read a poem a day. This morning I randomly selected Mary Oliver reading her well-known poem Wild Geese.  It made me tear up. I empathized with everyone in this world to whom this poem resonates.

 

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2020/05/15/rdp-friday-empathy/

An Island of Ideas

Inside of me is a vast, tempestuous sea where all my idea toss and churn. Occasionally, those ideas wash ashore on islands where I comb for creative inspiration. Those “islands” for me in the physical world are journals. I am one of these creative-types that has a bookshelf full of notebooks, journals, and sketchbooks, all of them islands of ideas and I turn to for inspiration.

I came across this video this morning about creating a commonplace book.

I so agree with the speaker in this video below:

 

Today’s Ragtag Prompt

Why I Write Poetry When I’m Not Very Good at It…..

Why do I write poetry when I’m not very good at it?   Primarily, I create poems as a prose-writing exercise.  By writing  poetry I practice being precise in my word choices in order to create vivid images in as few words as possible– striking and colorful nouns, lively and intense verbs, fewer adjectives and adverbs.     I create poems to improve the lyrical flow of my prose-writing.

So that’s one reason.

I discovered a second reason I write poetry:  it is therapeutic.  I certainly do not set out to write poems about my inner well-being (or lack thereof on certain days).  While engaging in the April NaPoWriMo Challenge (writing a poem a day for 30 days),  I found that some of the poems I wrote “took over” and out came some of my issues.  So obvious this was to me that I am now researching the use of poetry for emotional healing and resolution.   Poetry writing could become a daily meditative practice and inner work.  I’ll see where that leads me.

Here are a couple of media resources I came across that you may find of interest:

A podcast episode of Poetry Spoken Here devoted to Poetry Therapy

And these Tedx Talks on the same subject:

It has been a long April so I am off to rest now.

ljg 2019