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"What is poetry", the young poet asked.
The older poet paused, took a piece of paper, folded it into the form of a paper dart and launched it into the air. “Describe what I have just done!” he said.
The younger looked at him, bewildered.
"Go on", prodded the older, "What did I just do? Did I not take a readily available object, manipulate it, apply discipline, take that little bit extra of loving care, to create something that can fly? Now, I want you to tell me and others what you saw, how you felt, how you responded. Were you inspired? Inspire me, let your eyes be mine."
Still confused, the younger poet said, “how can I be good enough a writer to do that?”
“Write to, and for, yourself; be your own first appreciative audience. However craftfully veiled your allusions, metaphors, phraseology, structure and form might be; it is a refraction of light through the dark crystal: gloriously, unrepentantly unique. It is a piece of you. Cherish it".
"In practical terms: write want YOU want to write, in the style and use of imagery that you want to paint a picture. write it down helpful, get it out. Leave the spelling and punctuation check to later. Finished? Step back, return to it later.
This time, read it as if it were from someone else. Does it flow, does it makes sense logically and dramatically? Does it say what you want to say? Does it capture the awe and wonder of seeing something for the first time, the “a-ha” experience of perception and discovery. Does it sing with energy, weave threads of magic? Give a different perspective to something that might be missed as being “common”?
“How will know if I have succeeded?”
“Sing me a song
Paint me a picture
Seduce me with your words
Enthrall me”
If your poem does one or more of these things, you are succeeding; if it does all four? You have succeeded. You will feel it, you will recognise it cognitively. You will be able to experience what it is like to embrace the cosmos.
Tagged in les bush