Yes, I've been working more on this lately—working on loosening up, getting more imagination into my poems—more imagination and more movement.
The trick, for me, is to write loosely and expansively without being sloppy. Even when I'm trying to write in a more ebullient—dare I say spontaneous—voice, I still want to pay attention to repetition (of the inadvertent kind) and line endings and music. I still want every word to count.
(For years, I was very strict about repetition—as in "don't, ever." Now I've reached "don't, unless you do it on purpose and you're damned sure.")
How do you loosen up? Or do you?
Random thoughts on writing poetry and life in general
About me
- Joannie Stangeland
- Joannie Kervran Stangeland writes poetry and the Poe-query blog. Her new book, Into the Rumored Spring, was published by Ravenna Press. Joannie's also the author of two chapbooks--A Steady Longing for Flight (winner of the Floating Bridge Press Chapbook Award) and Weathered Steps (Rose Alley Press). Her poems have also appeared in The Midwest Quarterly, Valparaiso Poetry Review, and other publications.
Blog archive
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2009
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May
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- Sunday
- Getting the word out
- Biscuits? Did you say biscuits?
- Two paths of my life have crossed
- "I wish I'd written that"
- Hey, loosen up!
- Oh, what a night...
- On the edge
- It's a jolly holiday with Gilbert...
- Win at what?
- My Dorothy moment
- Tomorrow night! More about "Till We Wake"
- Self-publishing? One copy at a time
- Impatiens/impatience
- My poems need to be more like a painting by Marc C...
- Whirlwind weekend in Boulder
- When Spring arrives, the winter pansies are retired
- NaPoWriMo recap: A month of titles
- Whole wheat goodness
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May
(19)
My site
Poetry on the sofa
A Writer's Guide to Microsoft Office
Videos in the Guide
- Poetry notes in OneNote
- Create a manuscript (part 1)
- Create a manuscript (part 2)
- Create a booklet
- Create a flyer you can print or send in email
- Track writing submissions
- Don't miss a deadline!
- Single-space your line-spacing in Word 2007
- Track your word count in Word 2007
- Setting up a Mail Merge in Publisher
Links
- The Sun Hunters
- Ravenna Press
- Rose Alley Press
- The Alchemist's Kitchen: Susan Rich's blog
- Floating Bridge Press
- Mutating the signature: Dana Guthrie Martin's blog
- paperarts: Jane Chang's blog
- Judith Skillman's site
- Kathleen Flenniken
- Open Books: A Poem Emporium
- First Draft Leonardo Likes Gulls
- The Virtual World: Peter Pereira's blog
- Premium T.: T Clear's blog
- AndrewJShields
- Corn Shake: Aimee Nez's blog
- Jeannine Blogs
- It's Not About The Hair: Debra Jarvis's blog
- Thomas Stangeland, Artist/Craftsman
- Pavement and velodromes: Christine's blog
- Shelburne Arts Co-op
- Poetry Super Highway
- Nostalgia: The Poetess at Green Lake
- The Poetry Foundation
5 comments:
I am what I am.
If I portray what I am not,
is it me or a stilted version of me?
Of, course that doesn't mean I don't review to make sure that I've shown what I wish and not reflected something else.
I try to write at night when my internal editor is asleep or sleepy. OR I read other writers who are looser than me (they are not too hard to find!) ;-)
Kells, for me everyone is too sleepy at night. But I do find that reading other, looser, writers helps.
Dawn, I was thinking about your comment and then the discovery of the other layers, what we might not know about ourselves yet (poetry seems so great for that--and not just the poems themselves, but styles and tones and so many things to play with).
But then, in the new issue of The Missouri Review, Ellen Bryant Voight says, "Poetry is a lens onto the world. If a writer keeps going with what he knows, he will no longer see new things. The great exhilaration is that writers can change the lens. They can put themselves in a position to write other kinds of poems."
That last sentence, especially, says it for me.
I don't worry about loosening up I write and write rewrite and rewrite ...
my muse always joins me.
Hmm...
I've been thinking about your comment, VioletWrites. Where is my muse? Do I remember to invite her? Is she just plain busy sometimes?
I hadn't thought of it that way lately.
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