I've been in an odd mood lately, maybe it is the conference with Billy Collins, maybe it is coming so close and yet not close enough to my writing goals. Tonight I’ve read several interviews with Amy Bloom and she talked about being a mother & a writer. She talked about not having a MFA and even goes so far to say that the best writers in the last 400 years did not have one.
When I did the conference with Dorrianne she suggested I enter her MFA program in Portland and I turned it down. One reason was the girls and the other, I just wanted to write. I see how easily I could get caught up in trying to “make” poetry and I read, study poetry more than most MFA’ers I know. I respect it, the way I respect a fine arts degree but it does not make a painter, all that matters is the work in the end.
Lately I have been lost. I get lost often. I wonder if the road I am taking is the right one or if I’ve made mistakes. When asked what she believed was the greatest thing that helped her (Amy Bloom) when she was first being published was, she did not think. She wrote.
She didn’t wonder where to send it, or if it was something she should even be writing about.
I think too much, I always have. I want to wake up every morning and write a poem because I love poetry the way I love my daughters. It is in me. I do not want to think anymore.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
"I do not want to think anymore."
Yes, that's absolutely right. Beginner's mind is such an incredible place from which to write. I constantly realize I don't know a damned thing about my art. I approach it in awe, religious awe, almost, an acolyte. As soon as I think I have learned something, it slips away. I keep coming back to the beginning, loving it, being in love with it. I don't want poetry to be a system or a commodity or a reflex. Ever. At the same time, I have to continue to learn craft. It's a tricky balance.
thank you for reminding me of that balance. I have never been much of a tightrope walker
Post a Comment