Shaun said:
"By the way, I'm not sure what the aversion is to a thread that asks a question. There may be nothing worth learning from the responses, but those responses may still be interesting and entertaining regardless. Personally, I find little personal details fascinating. I've always been amazed to read about poets who go on about what a struggle it is to write -- how much work and emotional turmoil it requires to coax out a poem."
Yes! Why not have a bit of fun conversation from time to time--especially about poetry?! Thanks, Annie. Love the "meow!" (Bob, sending more meows your way....)
I've just been reading (finally) that book everyone keeps mentioning, Now All Roads Lead to France: The Last Years of Edward Thomas by Matthew Hollis (great book), huge portions of which involve Thomas' struggles to write--so far, prose--as well as the amount of time it took him (most of his short life) to become an amazing poet. All of which I relate to...
I "became" a poet in my late 40s. At first, I wrote several a week. Now I'm lucky if I write one a week. I tend to go one at a time. But I'm learning--as others have pointed out--that sometimes you just have to let go for a while, and then come back to something that's not quite working. Sometimes just a night's sleep can do it, sometimes a couple of weeks. Occasionally, I come back to poems from, say, a year or so back, but not much has come of those, I have to say. I do tend to be mostly in the moment--that is, I write the poem and then it's more or less done, or as done as it can be. I sometimes wonder if that's because with each poem I'm developing as a poet? At least, that's a nice thought!
Charlotte
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