Circling the Poem

I always write around a poem before zeroing in on the right words. It’s kind of like the ritual of a cat who walks in circles over and over on a comfy couch, or your favorite soft sweater, before eventually lying down in a mound of purring fur. If a runner or dancer needs to warm up their muscles before setting the body to work, and if a singer must first vocalize before performing the long runs and high notes of an aria, then a writer must also limber up the mind before writing that much awaited, ever elusive, literary masterpiece.

To go back a step further, I always read good writing before attempting to write something worthy of reading. Either a novel by an author I admire or a book about the writing process serves to prepare my mind for the work ahead. Elizabeth Berg wrote an inspiring book about writing called: Escaping Into the Open: The Art of Writing True. I highly recommend all of her books and this book on writing is a must read for writers. At the end of each chapter, Berg even includes practical writing exercises, which can really jump-start your writing session.

Once I am ready to put the books down, I like to write what I call “starter” pieces before diving into my current project. Whether it be starter prose or starter poetry, the initial flexing of one’s writer’s muscles is essential to getting to the gem phrases or the sparkling thoughts that people will be touched by and inspired by when reading your work. I might find one sentence that stands out. I will then use that sentence as a starting point, or even use it as the title of the next poem I write, and a new, evolved poem will take shape. Sometimes a phrase will take me in a new direction – the direction I am meant to take - and I will write a completely different poem than I first set out to create. When everything comes together and the magic of that final poem or paragraph appears, the one you were meant to write, you will feel the energy of the words come through and you will know that this is why you write. This moment of knowing that you have found a way to bring life to words in a way that reveals a greater truth or an inspiring story that will touch the lives of others – this is the moment when you are “in flow”. Keep going. Stay with the flow for as long as you can, until you naturally need to take a break or in my case until the babysitting session is over, and you must return to fetching sippy cups of water and bowls of goldfish for eager, smiling toddler faces.

This writing life that sweeps you up in a frenzy of ideas and words is a magical, compelling activity. It is a way of life. It is “The Pull of the Moon” - To use the title of one of Elizabeth Berg’s novels. This topic requires its own blog entry, so read on, as I allow my Running on at the Ink blog to run …