This blog is about how you can rip pass writer's block by refusing to harness your horses (thoughts.) Don't pass over the thoughts that are seemingly irrelevant: Gee, that trash can's really full or "It's really humid today" or "That man over there is dressed like a Victorian gentleman." Harness these wild horses in line with the horses of important thoughts: I will fall to my death if I leave the path" or "That dog is so beautiful" or "have I told you how much I love you today?"
Yesterday, I got to spend some time with some former piano students who are all grown up now, (And let me just say that few things can make you feel older than watching kids you taught your first lesson to in second grade walk in the room from work.) They were going through some of my poems, and they kept asking things like how do you write a poem about alligators and marshmallows or about hurricanes and blow dryers?. They were most particularly interested in "Mozart and Golden Retrievers,"
This caused me to do a self-examination and I could only find one cause: I'm off in the head!
These are not the only people who ask me how I do it. (And let me reinforce here that this is not a blog about my poetry being superior or anything. It's just about where I get such bizarre ideas.) Most people filter the thoughts that come through their heads. They ignore thoughts about a door being open, a person with purple hair, thd scorch marks around an electrical outlet. This is how we're designed, and for those of you that are "normal," these irrelevant thoughts are quickly ignored and forgotten. For instance, when sitting in the hospital ER because you fell down and busted yourself up yesterday (OWWWW), you hear someone give his/her address to the attendant. Most people would hear "Apt H as in happy" to be a sideline track of thought with no meaning, whereas I sit there and start constructing a poem. I don't WANT to, but I can't help it. I watch my golden retriever swimming joyously in the water and listen to Mozart at the same time. My filter is off, and off we go.
The girls couldn't get past the way that I harvest all thoughts going by. I don't stop them because they;re inane. My mind grabs threm and wrings all of them for their potential.Most times I fail, but occasionally I get a winner.
I am so envious of those of you that can just construct a poem line by beautiful line. I just take a whole mess of random thoughts and throw them at the wall to see which ones stick. I can't do the beautiful imagery of so many that I see here. I also can't detach my emotions from what I write. So many of the poets I admire here are able to do that, and I envy them. This just goes to show that every poet has his/her own method. Poetry Soup is so great because we can learn from each other. There is a famous story about two men that die, one a Muslim, and one a Christian. The were good men and weht to their respective heavens but were soon disillusioned. So, "they passed out into the World Soul and made it better." Contribute something that you really know well (heartache, longing, happiness--whatever strips you down to your soul--and share it. Together, we all grow and improve.
Try it out, sometime. Try to capture some random thoughts before they get away, and link them in your head with mainstream thoughts. See what comes out! Never waste a thought.
And please, give us all some insight into what your method is. Diversity through unity!