Returning

Poet Franz Wright said in an interview once, "When I'm in certain moods, a conversation will start up in my head, and suddenly I'll realize that the language has reached a very high and interesting level, and then lines and stanzas will just kind of appear full-blown."

Now, writing hasn't exactly been this magical for me, but I do know the experience of channeling a certain persona, where the poem organically develops from an initial thought or image, and as the idea unfolds the poems' lines develop.

Robert Frost, who I recently studied for my Modernism Form & Theory graduate class, wrote in his essay, The Figure a Poem Makes: "For me the initial delight is in the surprise of remembering something I didn't know I knew. I am in a place, in a situation, as if I had materialized from cloud or risen out of the ground. There is a glad recognition of the long lost and the rest follows. Step by step the wonder of unexpected supply keeps growing. The impressions most useful to my purpose seem always those I was unaware of and so made no note of at the time when taken..."

I can relate to his statement, and also love that he said, "Like a piece of ice on a hot stove the poem must ride on its own melting." A lovely way to describe the process of writing a poem. And my recent writing experiences (i.e., poems I have written for my thesis) have felt like a return to my original joy.

If anyone other than my friend Emily reads this blog, then I will note that the month of January was exceptionally busy with grad school, getting engaged to the love of my life, wedding planning, trips to Seattle area, etc. I did not want to translate very personal real-life moments into blog entries. I want this venue to be an outlet for writing and publishing my essayistic ideas about poetry and life, not be a diary of my days. So, while I was writing, I wasn't publishing anything here. I will try to do better.