'midnight near
biting at my shoulder
a whisper an angle a flutter
I could see that it might work, but
shouting shouting fists at my window
heart hot heart writhes the whisper stopped
a poem scared away a song swallowed in fear
Rob
S Oh Sarah, that's a song. Beautiful
Janette
H Biting at my shoulder... I feel the bite some nights too when I'm trying to
force the poetry to not take time away from my children.
Susan
H What an extraordinary piece of writing.
Efi
H absolutely stunning
Myron
L Good shape and sad phrases
Robbie
V a poem about being unable to write a poem due to terror — a triumph
Anna
C Reminds me of Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights
Chelate mm... Cathy's wrist on
the window pane
Anna C yes, getting cut on
the glass
Sarah StVW Wow! Thanks everyone.
A poem written in absolute desperation. Wuthering Heights and that scene at the
beginning is one of the great passages in literature for me, I feel it part of
me, but I didn't have it in mind when this emerged, so that is interesting. I
had the feeling of a poem emerging the threads the wanderings the voice
emerging in my mind and then I had some very bad energy from the outside world
come to me at about 11pm, (email communication) which is really becoming
deadline time for this project, and it killed what was happening in my mind, my
heart was racing I was scared about what was communicated, that it would also
rob me of the post a day which I have so far achieved, and I just resorted to
writing about that experience. Thanks! I am so glad you felt it worked. And I
had taken that quirky picture in the Blue Mountains very recently on a walk
with Jane Skelton and I was wondering if I could use it for anything.'
All of that I really valuable and interesting feedback for me. It give me some feel for possible responses.
So I won't do this often, probably not again, but it is a little record for me. I was way surprised people thought this poem ok. I am not into the 'intentional fallacy', but it is magical, where thing come from, how they are received, what happen next. Anna has written one picking up the 'Wuthering Heights' connection she made. 'Small arms'.
I look to your poems, images, how I am feeling, what I have noticed or been thinking about, to seek poems. And then they are something else again.
a nice kind of case study ... and of course it would be interesting to hear how comments and feedback impact on revision and re-casting work (or not)
ReplyDeleteyes, I think this description is great, about the process, because it can happen like that. We so often fire off another poem but don't really get to explain how it happened.
ReplyDeleteI think how we sometimes don't manage to participate is as relevant as anything else eh. Thanks Sarah for your insights and mighty powerful piece. Enjoyed everyone's comments.
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