 Poetry: June 15, 2016 Issue [#7696] |
  Poetry
This week: Thinking Poetically Edited by: Fyn  
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We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, "O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless... of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?" Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. That the powerful play *goes on* and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?
~~John Keating (Dead Poet's Society)
The writer is the duelist who never fights at the stated hour, who gathers up an insult, like another curious object, a collector's item, spreads it out on his desk later, and then engages in a duel with it verbally. ~~Anaïs Nin, The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934
I learned never to empty the well of my writing, but always to stop when there was still something there in the deep part of the well, and let it refill at night from the springs that fed it. ~~Ernest Hemingway
If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry. ~~Emily Dickinson
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The other day I was speaking to a prospective author. I was talking about the feelings authors have holding their book in their hands for the first time; on how they often lift it to their face and breathe it in, how they fan the pages and how they stroke the cover as one does the face of their spouse, how they gather it in and literally hug it as tears threaten to fall. It is a heady moment, after all!
Her response to this was a nod, but what she said was, "You must be a poet as well as a publisher. I've been listening to you and speaking with you for fifteen minutes now, and I feel as though you speak in poetry; there is that cadence to your speech, that choosing of words, that sense of listening to a poet read."
What a compliment! Sure, I blather on like others do much of the time, but when I am passionate about something, when I feel a subject, argument or feeling is important, I (as my husband phrases it) get all 'poetic sounding.'
Robert Frost told me once (when I was very young) that "If you don't think in poetry, you can not write poems." He went on to say that I should look at the world around me as if it were already in a poem. I never forgot this. It probably drives people crazy too, but I do this all the time. Whether I'm talking with a friend while watching an episode of Longmire or walking the back yard fence, when I am angry with a neighbor for their children leaving their toys in our yard or watching a trio of hot air balloons float overhead, I'll hear myself say a couple of sentences that sound poetic, that are phrased the way one does in a poem and find myself thinking that there is a poem buried in whatever is going on.
Or, because I listen in that same vein, I will hear the poetry in another's words and pause in my thinking to 'record' it to bring back later. Or come out an say that those words sounded like a poetic phrase. My husband, who would tell you he is NOT a poet, made a comment the other night about how the moon shadows of the line of pine trees along our back fence looked like an entire forest. My brain went in to overdrive and I came in the house to write down the words 'purpled shadow forest.' They will be in a poem before long. Today probably.
One of my authors is just finishing up what is, to my way of thinking, the best book she's ever written. She is (by her own words) not even into poetry. She absolutely loves (and I cannot stress this enough) LOVES her main characters in this book. They are absolutely alive for her, and, consequently, to her readers. They, like the Skin Horse from Margery Williams' The Velveteen Rabbit became real. In that book, when the Skin Horse is explaining 'real' to the Velveteen Rabbit, he says "Real isn't how you are made,' said the Skin Horse. 'It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.'" Her characters are exactly that! Because she loves them, she believes in them, because they are real to her, they become real to the reader. But more, when she speaks of her characters, her words take on a different tone. Eloquent, she speaks of them in the here and now as if she just had shared a hot chocolate and catch-up session with them. Her words take on that sense of real-ness, that feeling of her words being imbued with friendship, love and family. Even when she is frustrated with them, she sounds and speaks of them with a fondness reserved for that beloved little sister. And her phrasings take on that 'poetic' feel. Interesting, this writer who insists she is not a poet, can think so 'poetically!' I expect she'd deny it as well. But the poet hears.
Another friend (here on WdC), who is a poet, does this all the time. I get the biggest kick out of her descriptions of her bird and flower photography. Each, it and of itself is a small poem. Just change the lines and it is all there!
Spend little time and try to think poetically when you are outside, playing with your kids or out with the dog. The next time you are angry or disappointed with your teen or your spouse, try to phrase your thoughts in a poetic way. At the very least, you might sidetrack yourself! Turning a situation into poetry can certainly diffuse a difficult or awkward one. Even if it is just in your head! When outside and seeing a dragon or butter fly describe it in the moment. The grey threatening cloud with its edges turned golden by the setting sun or the moon, fat and round looking three times its normal size on the horizon or the howling dog across the back fence communing with the passing firetruck! Think outside your normal box of thought, heck, turn it upside down! You just might be surprised at what words fall out!
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And yes, I did write that poem!
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Lyn's a Witchy Woman  writes: Thank you for putting my book into your newsletter. I am like you that I use my poetry to resolve frustrations and hurt it is a lot less expensive than breaking dishes. I used to throw dishes at the wall though I will admit I do miss that smattering sound.
I hope everything resolves itself in your world.
It has...funny, things always seem to - one way or another!
💟Crissy~Hijacked  says: Thank you for this newsletter. It resonated well with me. I tell people a lot to look for the silver lining in their situation. For me, words are my weapon of release. Anger, love, whatever the emotion may be, I must write about it.
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