when the poet plays the mind like
a musical instrument."
"Most poets earn little or no money; gaining recognition is like digging for diamonds at the bottom of the ocean. One must love the water, be a strong swimmer, dive and dig deeply; entertain sea monsters."
"Poetry is the poet at play."
Writing a poem is like doing a crossword puzzle. It kills time, focuses the mind, improves awareness and vocabulary. A poem is a word game that with knowledge and enough concentration sometimes becomes art. Whereas prose demands an audience or at least a reader, poems can be enjoyed for what happens when they are written. The poet is the inventor of the puzzle, the puzzle itself and the one who ponders and puzzles it out."
" Where do poems comes from and how are they made? Sometimes mine begin as automatic writing: "a voice" speaks to me, at least I describe it as a voice because people can understand that, but more clearly, it's a current of unconscious verbal energy, as if I turned a switch on to begin, then turned it off. Afterward, I rewrite until it's what I want and that is very conscious action, re-reading, concentrating, looking again and again until done. There are other methods of writing. Poets can select a particular line or form to work within and stay with that choice. What I'm talking about here is the origin or source of a poem, how inspiration feels when I write.
"It's a form of meditation: Mind looking at mind then creating something that has never before existed."
"Just as painting is the concentration of color and materials selected and used by a skilled hand and trained mind, poetry is the concentration of thought and words to express intense feelings on the page and through the voice by a skilled mind and equally important, a trained eye."
"A poem is a creative expression of a particular human mind; a poet is a creative expression of the universe and in the best poetry one finds both the particular and universal because one is a reflection of the other."
"At the heart of it is the expression of strong emotions that cannot be conveyed by ordinary language. It's the most difficult form of writing, a way we communicate through the subconscious, the language of imagined and real gods, men, women, children, animals and insects, the language of trees, rocks, sun and moon. It is sound that calls forth intense meaning, beauty, truth, but also horror and frightful images and ideas. It's an escape from and the discovery of reality. It is, in the end, a disease and a cure, a song and a dance, a great love."
RaynRoberts
May You Know Peace
No part of this website, pages 1, 2, 3 or 4 may be copied or used without permission from the author.