Someone asked me: how did you come to write poetry?
I sat stunned for a minute and then answered “I don’t know.”
I do know that I did not consciously sit down to write a poem. I sat down to figure things out – I was 13 or so and I had found that I could think a little clearer if I wrote my thoughts down. My thoughts came out in bits, in metaphor (I figured this out later), in pictures drawn with words. They had rhythm and flow and they spoke my feelings. It was poetry. Later I learned to edit and revise- strengthening and lengthening my meaning and intention but the raw stuff, the first stuff out onto the paper, felt fabulous and real.
It’s the same way when I paint, sculpt etc. It’s about creation, being a creator: imagining, inventing, trying, testing, failing, succeeding, voicing, It’s all fabulous and real.
Currently reading & learning: Modern & Contemporary American Poetry
Currently working on: mixed media painting> acrylic on plaster on wood and rewrites of several poems.
Planning to work on: mixed media sculpture.
Currently re-reading: the War of Art by Steven Pressfield