Saturday, October 10, 2009

Inviting your reader to the poem

A while back, VioletWrites made a comment about how when she sits down to write, her muse always joins her. That made me wonder whether I ever invite my muse to a writing session. Do I? Do you?

I hope she'll show up, but do I consciously inviter her? I don't think so.

Recently I've been rereading Lynda Hull, and I've noticed that not only do her poems often
move from a present observation to a past experience, but that she often if not always has another person in the poem.

She is speaking to someone, whether it's a someone from her past or an undefined You or a clearly defined You as the reader. It's a part of her voice, a part of the way she comes to writing and sorting through the various truths. And that You, no matter who it is, helps invite me as a reader into the poem.

It's given me something to think about.

4 comments:

Michael A. Wells said...

Interesting post. I need to hund down some of Lynda Hull's poems to see examples of what you are talking about.

As to inviting the muse in... I think she resides within. I do think I have to be receptive to hear her and I'm not always there.

Joannie Stangeland said...

I'm not always there, either. That's why I'd like to try an invitation. The trick for me is to remember that when I finally sit down to write.

Unknown said...

I agree with Michael that the Muse definitely resides within however, calling her up to be present is a good part of my writing ritual. The first thing I do is to conjure up the feeling (not the image) of a life force moment--a moment in time when I was in complete bliss. To start writing from a space of complete bliss helps the Muse linger...

Joannie Stangeland said...

Wow, moxiemuse, a moment of complete bliss. I'll work on that.

Michael, I recently read your post on starting from silence, pausing before writing. I'm afraid I'm pretty good at pausing, and then my writing time is gone.