Off the Cuff / My Other Journal

April, the poetry month

April is the poetry month, and a few of us have been writing a poem a day with the Dew Drop Inn, as other WdC writers have been doing on the site or elsewhere.

Poetry is magic. Sometimes it comes out of nowhere; other times, you have to sweat for it. In my case, the latter is more common, even when the idea comes out of nowhere. Mostly, I’m careless. I let the poem be; then, at other times, I sweat over every single word or line. I think a good poet would take nothing for granted and would revise repeatedly, but then, being a good poet takes a lot more than just placing words and lines together.

Deep within the words of poetry, even the poetry that uses the simplest of words, magical elements are hidden, elements such as: metaphysics, myth, vision, fiction, psychology, culture, journalism, sciences, and poetic trance, even though perspective and common human experience steers the lines.

For example, Gary Snyder who studied Zen and Tibetan Buddhism reflects those ideas and impressions. In his poems, one can usually find him listening to something, be it nature or his insides. His Call of the Wild starts with: The heavy old man in his bed at night / hears the Coyote singing / in the back meadow.

Most of the good ideas for poems come from everyday life, out of being intensely close to things, situations, and from isolating the mind from all else, which is what true poets usually do.

Here is a poetry reading by Jane Hirshfield. In 2004, Jane Hirshfield was awarded the 70th Academy Fellowship for distinguished poetic achievement by The Academy of American Poets. Her poems give a new light to everyday experiences.