[Max Goodman]

Originally Posted by Roger Slater

Chuck Close ...: “Inspiration is for amateurs.”

Yes, that's what makes that end of the spectrum so attractive. Part of me feels (as I imagine many of us feel) that my poems should be products of pure love, written for no reason but that I was inspired and felt driven to write them.

Certainly when I read others' poems, I want to believe this of them. Though I know that good poems can be inspired many different ways, knowing that a poem was written because the poet wanted to write a poem that day (or to meet any goal other than following the inspiration to write that particular poem), would not make me eager to read it.

[Roger Slater]

But I don't think it's such a binary thing, Max. Sometimes the inspiration comes during the writing process even if the writing process began out of pure discipline. For me, anyway, there's little inspiration to be derived from a blank sheet of paper, but if I can manage to put one or two lines down on the paper then I might (if I'm lucky) start feeling the inspiration. As Close said, "All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself."

[Max Goodman]

Originally Posted by Roger Slater

But ..., Max.

I communicated poorly if you think I disagree with anything in your post, Bob.

[Kevin Rainbow]

A better exercise in my opinion is to pretend you are blind for a month and compose poetry that way. No pen, no paper, no computer/laptops/mobile phones, etc. Only the "internal" page, your mind, and your voice. "Write" and revise ten poems this way. After the month has gone by, then write them down. Once you better master moments of using only the internal page, you will be less dependent on the external one. You'll learn better to create and retain poetry internally on the spot, anywhere, everywhere, anyday, everyday.

[Roger Slater]

Let me understand, Kevin. Does pretending you're blind mean you have to give up driving?

[John Riley]

I'm writing a poem a day right now. Yes, I am in a vein and many of them are similar in pace and structure, but when I can write myself into the zone I like much of what appears. I write poetry for what it does to me. Chances are I'm never going into the Norton Anthology or whatever so I write to touch something. One advantage I may have is that I made my living writing nonfiction for years. In some ways that hampered me when I returned to poetry, but one of the gifts it provided me is I can write and write and write, although I have slowed down a bit because of age and such things. So I don't mind writing the poem a day because I may write a couple of thousand words or so before I touch something that sparks me, then I'm in the place I need to be. I do it because it's fun and I know that at some point I'll go to a place that won't allow me to do it and be miserable until I am allowed to leave.

Also, who in the hell wants to write without seeing the words? That's like having sex with the most beautiful partner you can imagine in the pitch dark. I love the words before me.

[Yves S L]

So the house style is not to explicitly refer to other people's comments. Rightio.

I interpret composing with eyes closed as an exercise in what is commonly called "working memory" and it is useful insofar as an increase in mental bandwith can easily be applied to eyes open composition. Be able to manipulate large amounts of information mentally is known as usefl in fields as different as chess and muscial composition, so no reason why it would not have an application to poetry. Nevertheless, for me a preliminary exercise would be expanding working memory in relation to sensory perception, so being able to hold the sensory details of something as simple as sitting in the garden.

The talk of inspiration reminds me of what I heard a music teacher say recently: Mozart wrote his masterpieces because he was getting paid. Talk about seperating those that are amateur from those that are not, to me, has a basis in the history of artists having to feed their children. More generally, I interpret talk of inspiration as depending on subconscious processes not made explicit. There was a phase when I could write ten poems a day.

[W T Clark]

I agree with Yves that napo often allows one to heighten pre-existing strategies. For me, I am being drawn to ekphrastics, which (I hope) play to my own skills. I hope later to branch into metre, or do something modernist with rhyme.

I have a very basic instinct to write. I wouldn't even call it having a story to tell or a message to present; it is a much more biological, baser instinct. Napo is accessible for me in that regard.

[Yves S L]

Ekphrastics is a good general strategy for NaPo, because the artwork gives constraints (the artwork is about something specific written in specific context in a specific time and place by a specific artist in a specific place in their artistic journey ) while giving a multi-sensory stimulus/prompts in a stock of aural or visual (music and paintings) images, themes, memory/emotional associations, structural devices, and so on.

Personally my base instinct is to sing as the birds sing, which can be transumuted to a constrant stream of words (redirect emotional flow to another "channel").

Did I mention that I use online forums to just generally practice the transmutation of thoughts into words?

[W T Clark]

Originally Posted by Kevin Rainbow

A better exercise in my opinion is to pretend you are blind for a month and compose poetry that way. No pen, no paper, no computer/laptops/mobile phones, etc. Only the "internal" page, your mind, and your voice. "Write" and revise ten poems this way. After the month has gone by, then write them down. Once you better master moments of using only the internal page, you will be less dependent on the external one. You'll learn better to create and retain poetry internally on the spot, anywhere, everywhere, anyday, everyday.

I don't think you really understand your own analogy. Since individuals who are blind have access both to their own technology, screen readers, and forms of written communication, your comment seems uninformed at the best.