Poetry Forum

I am wondering do any of you good people have a person with whom you can share the awkward birthing process of poetic creation?

At present I am writing something possibly gargantuan and to be honest at this stage of the process I almost need to enter a trance to embody the poem before I can then attempt to move it along, however I am finding this an increasing "odd" experience.

So I suppose I am venting a little, maybe asking for help but also just asking about how other people here write a poem.

Tricky, hmm. I suppose you ought to define "gargantuan" first, then elaborate a bit on why the embodiment is becoming odd.

For my longer efforts, the "trance" of which you speak consisted simply of NOT putting pen to paper for several months. In this way I was able to spend extended periods musing over what I might want to say (and how to say it). So that, for example, as I walked to work I played out possibilities in my head. I believe that they all stayed in there somewhere, and when the time came to write, the salient things came out.

My M.O. for long poem sequences (my addiction, as it were) is one poem one idea, followed by good working titles for all the sections and "bonus B-sides", then the above insistence on abstinence, then lots of hard writing and workshopping.

I have been lucky to have one person for each sequence who helped my to tone up or chuck away poor poetry, discuss ideas, approaches etc etc. (Though I *wrote* them!) Variously this was my sister, my fiance, my mate... once, only once, I did it all by myself

There is another thread in here about how people write - the tools of the trade though - but it is useful because whether someone chooses a conventional screwdriver or a cordless electric one speaks about who they are. Check it out.

Hope that's cool.

Cheers

Stuart

lars

Good post from stuart - worth listening to as he has probably posted some of the most successful long pieces on here.

In terms of what the PG board can do for you, you may want to post bite size pieces, explain what you are doing and critters will give you their thoughts. You may end up engaging with one or two people and excahnge ideas by PM. Key is that the piece has to be engaging.

elph