Hello, Word Artists and Admirers! My brother-in-law sent a link to an interview with poet Clint Smith on Steven Colbert. I'm glad he did, because although I do peek in on late night comedy from time to time, I don't often watch too many interviews. My brother-in-law had seen Mr. Smith speak in Philadelphia and he knew my love of poetry so thought I would enjoy it.
In the interview Mr. Smith says poetry is the act of paying attention. I rather like that idea, so for this week's optional prompt, I'd like you to write about the act of paying attention, in whichever way you would like to interpret it. I'm taking poetry and prose, fiction and non-fiction. Just be sure to keep your pieces to 369 words or fewer and one piece per person please.
Next week, Rosemary will ask us to take a well-known myth or fable and write as one of the main characters (not
necessarily retelling their story so much as inhabiting their skin).
A
Wee Note, from Magaly: This rather interesting post was created by Rommy (who,
by the way, just had a birthday yesterday), but I will be the one hosting today.
Hello, Word Artists and Admirers! Yes, I know. It's supposed to be Ms. Magaly's turn up at bat. Funnily enough, her life is imitating art at the moment. She got hit with a hard deadline on projects she's working on, so the time crunch is definitely affecting her this week!
Just to keep things simple, I'm running with the optional prompt Magaly had planned for this week, time affects all things. Use that phrase to inspire your writings, either poetry or prose, fiction or non-fiction. Just remember to keep your pieces to 369 words or fewer, and one post per person please!
Next week, Magaly will take over for me, where the optional prompt will be all about the act of paying attention. Happy writing!
I love to read not only all your poems and stories, but also your background notes (if any). The whole process of writing is endlessly fascinating to me.
Poems about poetry and the writing of poetry
Forty-odd years ago when I first discovered my tribe of other poets in Melbourne, and then the rest of Australia, there was a belief current among many of them that one ‘shouldn’t’ write poems about writing poetry. It was considered too inward-looking, too self-centred, not likely to speak to people in general.
And yet, many poets have done it, starting with Horace in ancient Rome, with a piece titled Ars Poetica which gave the practice its name. That means ‘the art of poetry’ but has come to be used for poems about poetry. Hands up anyone here who hasn’t done it, at least once? No-one? I thought so!
Of course the subject fascinates us – and if those poems only speak to other poets, well, these days there are a lot of us around. (And anyway, I subscribe to the view that there should be no 'shoulds' in writing poetry.)
A favourite quote from one such poem is: … poems should be written rarely and reluctantly, under unbearable duress and only with the hope that good spirits, not evil ones, choose us for their instrument.
– Czeslaw Miłosz: Arts Poetica?
perhaps explained by an earlier verse in the same poem:
In the very essence of poetry there is something indecent: a thing is brought forth which we didn't know we had in us, so we blink our eyes, as if a tiger had sprung out and stood in the light, lashing his tail.
Don’t you love it? Oh, I want at least some of my poems to be tigers! (Though I might want others to be flowers, or breezes, or sea-shells.)
However, I also love the more traditional view in these lines by James Elroy Flecker, from The Golden Journey to Samarkand:
We who with songs beguile your pilgrimage And swear that Beauty lives though lilies die, We Poets of the proud old lineage Who sing to find your hearts, we know not why …
My very favourite piece of ars poetica, expressing a similar sentiment, is:
In My Craft or Sullen Art By DylanThomas
In my craft or sullen art Exercised in the still night When only the moon rages And the lovers lie abed With all their griefs in their arms I labour by singing light Not for ambition or bread Or the strut and trade of charms On the ivory stages But for the common wages Of their most secret heart.
Not for the proud man apart From the raging moon I write On these spindrift pages Nor for the towering dead With their nightingales and psalms But for the lovers, their arms Round the griefs of the ages, Who pay no praise or wages Nor heed my craft or art.
Another which runs that very close in my estimation is:
Necessary Explanation
By Yannis Ritsos translated by Rae Dalven
There are certain verses—sometimes entire poems— whose meaning even I don’t know. What I don’t know sustains me still. And you are right to ask. Don’t ask me. I don’t know, I tell you. Two parallel lights from the same center. The sound of the water falling in winter from the overflowing drainpipe or the sound of a drop as it falls from a rose in the watered garden very slowly on a spring evening like the sob of a bird. I don’t know what this sound means; nevertheless I accept it. Whatever else I know I explain to you. I don’t neglect it. But these things too add to our lives. As she was sleeping I watched her knee squaring the sheet— It wasn’t only love. That angle was the crest of tenderness, and the fragrance of the sheet, the cleanness and of the springtime completed that inexplicable thing I sought, again in vain, to explain to you.
Stories about story-telling
Let’s not entirely neglect the storytellers among us (even while acknowledging that poems can be stories too). Stories about storytelling include The Neverending Story(book and film), the Australian non-fiction study Finding Eliza by Larissa Behrendt – and the famous originator, a whole lot of separate stories within a story about story-telling: The Arabian Nights.
If you would like a prompt this time, I invite you to write about writing: either write a poem about writing poetry, or tell us a story about story-telling.
Guidelines: Prompted or not, we welcome poetry or prose, old or new, one post per person, 369 words maximum. Please link, via Mister Linky, to your blog post and also follow the other links to see what the rest of us have written. Having a little chat to us, in the Comments below, is optional (but welcomed).
Have fun!
Next week, Magaly will ask us to find
inspiration in the phrase “time affects all things”.
Image of writer by Brent Gorwin on Unsplash.
Note: My favourites have lasted over the years. Some of you may recall the poems quoted above from our old days as Poets United – but I thought such wonderful lines could bear repeating.
Hello, Word Artists and Admirers! I’m feeling good because I’m
hard at work on a new long-term writing project. It’s only just starting, but I’m
feeling good about hitting a couple of mini milestones (a solid outline and two
chapters in). How about you? Are there any small things you feel like
celebrating?
For those of you who would like a prompt to work with, may I
suggest, “small victories”? Of course, you are free to write about any topic
you’d like. I’m taking poetry and prose, fiction and non-fiction. Just be sure
to keep your pieces to 369 words or fewer, and one entry per person please.
Next week Rosemary will invite you to write about writing:
either write a poem about writing poetry, or tell us a story about
story-telling.
