Comments on: What’s It All About, Ralph?

By: Robert

Robert — Thu, 03 May 2007 18:41:55 +0000

Hah! I learned a new phrase today. Count on me telling people to stop “getting my back up” all day long.

By: Sherry

Sherry — Thu, 03 May 2007 18:37:05 +0000

Or possibly broaden your definition. Sometimes it just takes a lot of staring out the window to make a poem.

I love William Stafford.

Emerson I admire but he gets my back up.

By: Robert

Robert — Thu, 03 May 2007 16:45:25 +0000

Well, we all know genius frolics, too. And I agree, thinking too long and hard about genius can stop you pretty dead cold in your tracks.

I like William Stafford’s advice for writer’s block (echoed by Marvin Bell): “lower your standards.” i.e. – just write! I doubt anyone ever penned genius without trudging through a lot of banality first.

By: Sherry

Sherry — Thu, 03 May 2007 12:29:57 +0000

“The sign and credentials of a poet are, that he announces that which no man foretold.”

“Of course, the value of genius to us is in the veracity of its report. Talent may frolic and juggle; genius realizes and adds.”

Ah, I’d just as well hang it up. Way too frolicy, I am.

It’s this kind of portentousness that made me stay away from writing poetry for 50 years or so.

Hope your dry spell is over. I listen to a friend who doesn’t believe in writer’s block. If, she says, you aren’t writing, it’s because you have something else you need to do.

By: Robert

Robert — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 22:59:07 +0000

Thank you kindly. I like his essays best of all.

By: SolShine7

SolShine7 — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 20:52:39 +0000

Robert, thanks for visiting my blog! Emerson is one of my favorite poets too. You’ve got a nice blog going on here.

By: Robert

Robert — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 16:29:23 +0000

And apparently it was still true over 150 years ago.

By: Pearl

Pearl — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 16:23:32 +0000

Getting back to root inspiration is a good start.

Love the line “Notwithstanding the necessity to be published, adequate expression is rare.”

By: Robert

Robert — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 06:55:14 +0000

I have come to the conclusion that the realm of the explicitly political is limited by all the usual defenses we have built up against political rhetoric. Poetry, by contrast, has a far greater and more insidious power to move us to into deeper, more complex and ultimately more human understanding of intense situations. Thanks for the recommendations and keep ‘em coming.

By: The Shelver

The Shelver — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 03:23:21 +0000

Here, Bullet is quite a book. Not explicitly political, and all the more powerful for it, I think.

Thanks for stopping by the blog. Keep checking throughout the month. Our goal is a new recommendation every week day. And we’d love to hear suggestions, as well.

By: Robert

Robert — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 18:37:06 +0000

Thanks, now I know why they call it that! (And it isn’t just because of allergies.)

By: Robert

Robert — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 18:36:11 +0000

Thanks, RDG. I like the idea of a planting time, and that’s certainly been my experience. Sometimes when nothing seems to be flowing it can be due to not having taken in enough input. Then I’ll pick up a good book or listen to music or see a performance of some kind – and whadayaknow? Material – unrelated, usually, to the catalyst of what I’ve been taking in – appears.