On Sunday: Make Something
Winter arrived and the blues, too.
This week, I am eating, sleeping, slothing.
Make something is my usual prescription against gloom. In making something — soup, a cup of coffee, a to-do list, any small act — I’m engaging mind and shifting mood.
In my writing life, too.
I can usually find poetry in the everyday. But in my dreary state, creativity plummets. That’s when I know it’s time to turn to my trusty trick: Cut & Shuffle.
Searching for a spark, I hunt through newspapers, magazines, junk mail . . . I sort, shuffle, cut, collage, embellish and erase. Poetry is often the invention of reinvention. Somewhere between found poem and collage poem, I make something new.
Today’s poem is comprised of phrases and lines borrowed from Pheasants Forever, a magazine I found in the local library’s stack of free stuff. I’m not a hunter — except for words — but this publication’s beautiful photographs, coupled with writing by editor Tom Carpenter, could make me appreciate the beauty of the sport (well, aside from the killing). In art, the literal becomes the figurative.
Sometimes it takes just a small spark — and the art of rearrangement — to lift and shift.
How about you: What are you making?
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Thank you for reading & writing.
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Poetry has always been a bit of a mystery to me and I've never felt intellectual or creative enough to understand it much less create it. This poem "spoke" to me in a way most poetry hasn't in the past. Learning about the concept of "found poem" and "collage poem" opened a new window for me. I've often wondered how creators find their inspiration. Quite frankly, sitting down with a blank page terrifies me! Thank you for a great poem and some education. [KM]
Hi Kathy, Great to hear from you -- and thanks for reading.
I'm so glad the poem resonated with you. I know what you mean about the intellectual 'test' of poetry -- and it's a shame. We've built this wall around poetry that makes us feel outside of understanding when really the secret to 'getting' poetry is just what you stated: can you feel it, does it talk to you?
It's really that simple, and that wonderful.
I'm often scared of the blank page too! That's why I start with a trick or technique: 10-minute timed writings, freewriting (writing fast without thinking or stopping), borrowing a starting line, etc . . . If I approach writing as an exploration, rather than a finished product, I enjoy the process --- and the result.
Thanks so much for reading & writing,
Drew
