Now I lay me down on Carolee’s couch. Ohhh, it’s so warm and comfy. There is nothing unusual for a person choosing solitary writing. Most writers chose to write alone, less distraction from purpose. For me, writing poetry and prose alone, is a spiritual place that allows me to express my inner voices without the influence of others. I suppose if I were to have an acquaintance that I respected and trusted enough to allow into my expression closet I could share that part of myself, but then it would not be entirely an expression of my thoughts. Selfish I know, however I am more at home alone on a starry night in the wilderness than I am in my own backyard. There is a comfort in that. Writing alone takes one to an inner sanctum filled with the trust of memories and desires that can only be occupied and known by that person, ones own corpus sacredo. I dearly love remembering them, even the undesirable moments for the are the grist of affection for poetry.

To sum up here is a quote from author Tom Robbins, I think he may have said it all.

“Sometimes those things that attract the most attention to us are the things which afford us the greatest privacy.”

Okay Carolee, I have to put my aluminum foil cap back on my head, they are near now, out there some where, sending unwanted messages to my brain.

Happy Trails,
DCH

Even though I chose the cousins in grandma’s feather bed, I write alone, really. My group of writing friends is a group that meets monthly to share our work. They have been a great help to me at the editing stage - not that they do the work for me, but I value their opinions - and we have published a book together, but the actual writing is done alone. As I believe it always must be. Even when collaborating - at the point you contribute your own line, or word, you must go into the space of your own head to find it. Nobody else can inhabit your brain with you.

“Even when collaborating — at the point you contribute your own line, or word, you must go into the space of your own head to find it.”

This is a very good point, Catherine.

Carolee,

I’m not surprised by the results, and I’m an online veteran. My experience has been that bloggers are different from their predecessors, online message board community members. My theory is that blogging, while it provides writers an opportunity to connect with more readers and writers, it is also reinforcing our ability to isolate. Blogs are small islands that welcome visitors but the main inhabitant creates the island alone.

Personally, I miss the sense of community and creativity I experienced in online message board writing communities. It was far easier to interact on a regular and extended basis. I was an admin of one community for a couple of years, and I know my greatest period of creativity occurred when I was there. I was additionally a member, editor and publisher during that period.

For awhile I mourned the loss of community (Personal reasons led to dissolving the community). I learned it’s almost impossible and a bad idea to try to re-create something so eventually I found my way to blogging and a different kind of community.

I hear you though. I’d love to participate in a physical group of writers but I currently work very odd hours.

Like you, I highly value the power of interacting with other writers, but I think for many of us it is getting harder to carve out the time and space. I think for many of us, we’re overwhelmed by current affairs affecting all of our lives. I think we are experiencing a societal shift of conflicting behaviors: a desire to connect and an increasing voluntary action to withdraw and isolate.

More later. On my way to work.

Peace,
s

thanks for stopping by to chat! it’s so interesting how everyone has such a different stance on everything. i LOVE that. it’s why polls are one of my favorite features of RWP.

susan — i have had the opposite experience blogging. i know far more writers than i ever used to and i really feel informed and supported by the community. i’m fortunate, perhaps, but i embrace most of the people i’ve met as genuine and caring and helpful. of course there are the exceptions and it’s tough not to let them make me sour, but overall, my online experience has been positive.

dana and catherine — i echo what you highlighted: when it comes right down to it our own minds are impenetrable by others. the place we must go to write is individual. (of course, it’s influenced by others but yes, it must come from within)

donald — it’s no surprise that so many people out in the world write alone. it’s expected. i was just surprised that people part of this community felt so solitary. and you’re right — it’s not bad, it’s sacred and it’s precious. i was just surprised. but i disagree with you that keeping writing to yourself protects it from influence. i don’t think there’s anyway to do that, no such thing as pristine ideas, i don’t think.

Carolee,

I hope I didn’t come off as saying that real and solid bonds can’t be formed among bloggers. I have made connections I value through blogging, too. I was trying to say that the environments are very different. For example the closeness and interaction I think exists between members at Poetry Collective is different than what we experience at our individual blogs.

With a blog, there is less immediacy of interaction. With a message board, the format lends itself to more extended conversations. In one place, at one time, you can move from one poem by different poets and read long threads of commentary. By design, message boards allow for discussion in a way you don’t see on a blog and that is no surprise. I think blogs are better medium for the lone writer. Blogs by design do not lend themselves to multiple threads and discussions.

I do not see one format as superior. I think each though provides unique advantages.

I’m an online user who initially belonged to web site communities embedded with forums, participated in listserve communities and later found a solid place in message board communities. When I became a blogger, I was surprised how many bloggers never belonged to other online communities prior to creating their own blogs.

It is hard for me to described the differences. Are there others here who have belonged to message board communities?

Oh, oh I have things to say! I have things to say!

*jumps up and down with excitement*

Susan, I know what you mean about the blogging thing. That’s why I’ve just helped found a poetry/arts instigation group here in Seattle. Are there things you can do like that in your community — simple poetry actions? With other poets and artists who work zany hours? A recitation in the all-night grocery store at 3 a.m.? The public poetry action we detail over in our RWP newsfeed? Yes, those are actions, not poetry-writing sessions. But still, they are ways to create community in one’s own back yard.

Carolee, I actually *do* think the mind can be inhabited by other people — by everything around us, really. I feel like mind, unlike brain, exists outside of self and in relation to the surrounding world. But still, when I sit down to write with someone, my mind is not the same — not influenced in the same ways — as my writing partner’s (or partners’) mind(s).

What a great discussion. I like it!

Yes, no idea is pristine, however each life has its own experience unlike that of all others. We are told no snowflake is alike, that also reflects a person’s life, only more complicated. We are comparable to quilts, hand stitched by the travails of causal influences forming our psyche, our view of others, our self, our relation and expression of life. Each stitch will be different in each quilt, the subtle piecing of the fabric. Collaborative poetry is a confluence those influences and can lead to disjointed reasoning.

The unique thing about participation in Read Write Poem is the fascinating diversity of interpretation each one has when responding to a prompt. The fact that there is so much diversity in the poetry is a direct correlation to personal influence from ones solitary writing. Involvement in the prompt exercises the mind to release solitary experiential poetry. I am fascinated by the talented pieces I read. There are poets that write here bubbling with creative ability.

My poetry is personal, a reflection of my interpretation of my life, how I see the world, and how the world influences me. Some of the collaborative poetry I have read has a meandering quality to it. Two minds striving to an end but separately impressed by their unique lives. To some that is an artistic quality in the writing, to others poetry without the conjoining thread of completeness.

Dana is right about community participation. I belong to the Poet’s Roundtable of Arkansas. Our members are taken from all walks of life and poetic abilities, including our state poet. Most states have a Poet’s Roundtable, get involved, it’s good for you. Sort of like mom’s teaspoon of cod liver oil.

Susan, at one time I was involved in the software sales business on a national level. I belonged to a large number of technology message board communities. I now be belong to none. It was exhausting and a responsibility Belonging to them was detrimental to the activities that participation in were more rewarding to me personally and intellectually. I suppose I’m getting cranky in my old age. (wink)

What about a Read Write Poem chat room?

Regards,
DCH

My experience of a message-board-style community has been similarly intense and rewarding. None of them have been particularly poetry boards, though poems did happen. It’s lovely and entirely different from (the also very lovely) blogging community.

The trouble with communities, I’ve found, is that they’re inherently unstable and tend to go down in flames when major players fall out. Of the three that have been important to me, two are dead now, and buried with considerable rancor and ill-will. Very sad. The other is a closed community, with elaborate rules for approving new members (based partly on my experience, actually.) Which is sad too, because one of the great things about communities is when a new personality suddenly appears, full of new energy, and everyone responds to it. We’ve sacrificed that to achieve stability & security.

For my own part, while I do enjoy community, I’m essentially a loner, and always have been. I go away to my cave in the mountains to write. I’ve been astounded, a little envious, a little queasy, watching y’all do interactive writing. (Without even using condoms. Do you know where those words have *been*?)

I’m with the loners! I’ve always believed that poetry attracts the lone wolves and introverts, while the fun-loving social extroverts are too busy, well, having fun and socializing to get a lot of writing done. Which isn’t to say that that poets can’t have fun or socialize… but it takes a certain personality to devote so much of one’s energies to sitting quietly at a desk thinking and writing. And it takes a lot of time sitting quietly at a desk thinking and writing poetry to be a poet, just as it takes a lot of time practicing a sport to become an athlete, and a lot of time practicing the piano to become a pianist.

I’m sure I’m wrong, and that there are loads of poets who love rolling up their sleeves and doing poetry while dishing up noodle casserole at an endless series of backyard barbecues. My hat is off to them! I’ve no idea how they do it, and I daresay they’re a much happier lot than those of us squinting at the sun through the cracked shutters of our writing rooms, wishing the noisy barbecue next door would break up so we could have enough peace and quiet to nail that rhyme for “purple.”

Carolee, as usual, your entertaining writing style and your honest, open thought process has instigated a conversation.

I’m kind of shy as a writer, even as a collaborator. I’m very timid about asking people if they want to write with me, for fear they think my writing is not up to par with their own. So the collaboration I’ve found on read write poem and the poetry collaborative has been very much a source of inspiration to me.

We always collaborate anyway, between past writers and present, between reader and writer, and with each other as we blog and use prompts. It’s a big soup, a love casserole.

Chuckle. Enjoying “love casserole.” Indeed.

Good Lord, Christine. Having just read your latest, I was stricken by my effrontery in having asked so good a poet a you to read my poems. I don’t know where you’d need to be looking to find poets you weren’t on par with. Shakespeare’s dead, you know.

Donald, what do you all do in your Poets’ Roundtable of Arkansas? Can you detail some of your activities?

We are talking about having a chat room for Read Write Poem. There’s a time commitment to doing that on this site, though. For now, we have a discussion thread section on our Facebook group page where people can discuss whatever they want.

We are trying to start a new conversation at least once a month, if not more frequently. But anyone can go over there and start a new discussion. (I think. You can try it and let us know if it doesn’t work.)

And if someone does start a new discussion, email us at info (at) readwritepoem (dot) org and let us know so we can spread the word by including it in our RWP newsfeed.

Christine, a love casserole???

jorc is not my real name. I don’t write, jorc does. No one knows about jorc. Not family, not friends, not my lover of 10 years.
jorc can write without restriction. no approval needed. jorc learns by reading yours and others blogs and by comments. jorc loves to try and take what’s in my head and put it on paper in a way that others can feel.
No one knows jorc, except you.