Hi Destee,
The other day, a wonderful woman who is a client of mine gave me a book called "The Poet's Notebook: excerpts from the notebooks of contemporary American poets," by Kuusisto, Tall and Weiss. My client is a poet herself, and the book is wonderful. They asked many poets to share some of their journal jottings, which includes narratives, singular thoughts, pieces of poems that got published or not, and random wonderings. As you can imagine, there are many precious nuggets in the book. From African-American poet Rita Dove's chapter:
we wire the sky for comfort
we thread it through our lungs for a perfect fit
we've arranged this calm, through it's constantly
unraveling
where does ti go then
atmosphere suckered up
an invisible flue?
how can we know where it goes?
This inspired me to dig into one of my own old journals, and I was surprised to find that I'd written in one for six years. Even more interesting was how much I'd forgotten. I found this piece amusing. It was from my first real trip to New York City (no offense to New Yorkers):
observations so far about New York -
* the characterization of the rude cabbies is a cold fact
* so much brand name-oriented clothing
* the city may not sleep, but it does get quieter at night
* people generally pay attention to each other less
* less variety and selection in grocery stores
So this got me to thinking, Destee, about creating a sub-section of the poetry forum where people could drop some of their random thoughts when they felt like it. A poet's journal section, if you will. It would be less formal than the get your flow on area, where some people feel pressure to turn out a masterpiece with no flaws. In the journal section, you could drop a piece of poem for feedback, throw down a few lines that occurred to you when walking to the bus stop. Stuff like that.
What do you think? Do you think others would vibe this, and how do you like the idea?
The other day, a wonderful woman who is a client of mine gave me a book called "The Poet's Notebook: excerpts from the notebooks of contemporary American poets," by Kuusisto, Tall and Weiss. My client is a poet herself, and the book is wonderful. They asked many poets to share some of their journal jottings, which includes narratives, singular thoughts, pieces of poems that got published or not, and random wonderings. As you can imagine, there are many precious nuggets in the book. From African-American poet Rita Dove's chapter:
we wire the sky for comfort
we thread it through our lungs for a perfect fit
we've arranged this calm, through it's constantly
unraveling
where does ti go then
atmosphere suckered up
an invisible flue?
how can we know where it goes?
This inspired me to dig into one of my own old journals, and I was surprised to find that I'd written in one for six years. Even more interesting was how much I'd forgotten. I found this piece amusing. It was from my first real trip to New York City (no offense to New Yorkers):
observations so far about New York -
* the characterization of the rude cabbies is a cold fact
* so much brand name-oriented clothing
* the city may not sleep, but it does get quieter at night
* people generally pay attention to each other less
* less variety and selection in grocery stores
So this got me to thinking, Destee, about creating a sub-section of the poetry forum where people could drop some of their random thoughts when they felt like it. A poet's journal section, if you will. It would be less formal than the get your flow on area, where some people feel pressure to turn out a masterpiece with no flaws. In the journal section, you could drop a piece of poem for feedback, throw down a few lines that occurred to you when walking to the bus stop. Stuff like that.
What do you think? Do you think others would vibe this, and how do you like the idea?