On Beginning...

Sister AE tagged me with this poetry meme:

List at least four things you think a beginning poet should attend to and four mistakes you think a poet should avoid.

So, here's my take. I say "we" instead of "beginning poet" because I still consider myself a beginner. Every time I think I know what I am doing, my whole world gets turned upside down and I realize that I will never stop beginning. (NOTE: I haven't read what the others wrote, but these are the ideas that resonate with me.)

Things we should attend to:

1) Our fears: This has been a tough one for me to tackle. I thought is was easy when I just approached it from the point of view where I wrote about the things that I was afraid of. But when I considered the idea of writing from my fears (by that I mean writing from that place, that voice that I never let speak) it was much more challenging. When I have allowed that side of myself to speak freely. The work is raw, but much more satisfying.

2) Our words: They don't always come in pretty little packages. Sometimes, all I get for days is a couple of rumbly little phrases rattling around my head. These aren't poems, but they might be someday, so I write them down.

3) Our sources: I used to believe that if a poem was really "mine" it had to come very organically from my own brain. Recently I have discovered that inspiration can come from many places. I can take a poem, a song or a particular poet and use their words, their tone or their voice to take that inspiration to a new place. In fact, when I am feeling particularly dry, I will grab a stack of books at random and flip through them, scanning the page for words or phrases that jump out at me. Sometimes, I see the words incorrectly. Sometimes, I see two words together even though they are printed on separate lines on the page. It doesn't matter. If it jumps out at me, I write it down in a notebook. After I have gone through all my books (or have a couple full notebook pages) I put the books away and write a poem using the words and phrases I recorded. It took me a while to realize that this is still "writing poetry." Use inspiration from any source possible. Credit only when necessary. Remember that you made it new.

4) Our past: Memories are great fuel for inspiration. I didn't have a particularly dynamic childhood, but if you ask me to recall something wonderful, sad or frightening that happened to me, I will remember something in great detail. The story of me (and my past) isn't about the facts. It's about the details. It's not about me being a small town girl who never did much outside the city limits. The story of me exists in the memories that I hold of those days- catching crawdads in the creek, chasing my first love across a field at the age of six, riding my bicycle to the Dairy Queen, the sound of my metal-wheeled roller skates on the playground blacktop. It's the details that make the difference and memory (whether accurate or not) can be rich with details.

Things we should avoid:

1) The idea that we have to be a "poet". Nothing could be more frightening than expecting that we have to be anything. I saw a bumper sticker once (which I loved) that said, "Every Kid is a Writer." When I thought about it, I realized that it's true. We are all writers. The only requirement of the job is to write. No body said it had to be good. No one said it had to be publishable. No one said it had to rhyme, not rhyme, make sense, be spelled correctly, have 5 syllables, be long, be short, be true, be funny, be pretty, be intelligent. We just have to keep putting our pen on the page or our fingers on the keys. That's it.

2) Waiting until we have something to write. I've been guilty of this so many times. I have very prolific friends who write several things a day. (I hate them!) Most times, I am lucky if I manage a poem a week. But if I remind myself that I don't have to wait until I have a "brilliant poem" in my head, I actually manage to write some things that I like. (Prompts are very helpful in this)

3) The idea that we will be wrong and/or shocking. Chances are, we won't be. People who read regularly, watch TV or listen to music these days are not likely to be shocked by much. This shouldn't be disheartening when it comes to writing. It's comforting to me because it gives me the freedom to say what I want to say from the deep, dark parts of myself.

4) The idea that we have to write to be a poet. Ha ha! You think I am contradicting myself? Well, I'm not...not really. I think there more to being a poetic soul than just writing down the details. I feel the most disconnected and unpoetic when I am not paying attention to the world around me. If I forget to read the newspaper for a couple of weeks; if I don't have time to read other poems, novels or essays, I get a little cranky. I feel uninspired and sad. I feel like I can't write anything. So, I sit down in front of a blank page and grow more and more frustrated with my sheer inability to create anything. I tell myself that I will allow time to read the paper after I have (finally) written something, but this never works. Sometimes, you just have to set aside the pen and paper for awhile and look around.

So, there you have it. I won't specifically tag anyone because I have so many writer friends that I would love to hear respond to this. If you have ideas, please respond and post the link in my comments.