by Carolee Sherwood
I love the saying, “Smoke ‘em if you’ve got ‘em.” It’s more colloquial than carpe diem, and it’s a cowboy version of laisser-faire.
It’s also a very colorful, concise way to say, “Do what you want when the mood strikes you,” and “If you have something at your disposal you can use, go right ahead.”
As poets, we can appreciate the need and the urge to make hay while the sun shines (to borrow another colloquialism). In other words, when an idea comes, write it down quick! Capture it! Don’t let it get away!
The real answer to the current Read Write Poll — “Where do you write most of your poems?” — is “anywhere and everywhere I can.” The real answer isn’t at the computer, in my journal, on notepads, on scrap paper, on post-it notes, on napkins, receipts and other mismatched items, on the back of my hand or in book margins. It’s “all of the above.”
But since we’re instigators here at Read Write Poem, we made you choose only one, and at press time, almost half of us write most frequently on our computers.
With so many of us being bloggers, I suppose that’s no big surprise, so let’s use the comment section to set ourselves free from the constraints of staking claim a single favorite writing tool. Tell us all the places you write.
Tell us what lengths you’ve gone to in the past to remember an idea until you could write it down. How long did it take? Did you have to ask someone for a pen or a Kleenex? Do you get up in the middle of the night and struggle with the notepad on the nightstand? Do you grab envelopes off the passenger’s seat and write while you drive?
As poets, we are both cunning and practical. I can’t wait to hear how the two conspire to compel you to write at the most inconvenient places and times!
Here’s how the poll dance works: We post a poll and let it ride for a week and a half, and then I’ll talk a little bit about the topic and the results. The poll will stand for a few days after that to allow additional participation. The rotation gives each poll two weeks in the white-hot spotlight.
<img style=”vertical-align:bottom;border:0px;margin:0 0 0 5px;padding:0 0 0 0″ src=”http://readwritepoem.org/files/2009/07/splat-ender1.jpg” alt=”" width=”20″ height=”20″ />by Carolee Sherwood
Hold it…I just had a moment of dejavu. This is a question that seems to get asked multiple times over the years or maybe it’s just my age. I once kept a journal, but time and a house fire released me from it. I say release because I seemed to write down every bit of conversation, phrase from a book, setting sun, winter day, scratching dog, and cantankerous cat instance that crossed my meager life. I now keep pieces of paper stuffed in books, my truck center console, or front leaf of a book (I detest books that are scribbled in). It is a much better method since it is left to the Gods of Chaos (or Chance) to select for me what I find to write. There is always the mumbled, “Now when in the hell did I write that!” It becomes an exercise for the mind, a Gulliver stretch of the imagination to retrieve the moment thus leaving behind the prim and proper organization of methodical poetry writing. I do love to live in the moment. The continual surprise fascinates me with my mind. For instance: Yesterday I found a photo from the Sahara. (I once trudged the sands when you didn’t get shot for being an American or infidel) and wallah, A Desert Journey was born. I haven’t thought about the night it describes for forty years, no notes just memories. Each of use carries our own journal of experiences, such a rich resource for poems.
Cheers,
DCH
There a small park near the building where I work. When the weather is comfortable, sunny, I like to take my lunch there, eat and then open my journal, uncap my pen, soak in the sun and wait…the words always come.
It’s my happy place.
I am one of those people who will grab any scrap of paper, receipt, envelope, ticket stub or napkin to write something down on. I’ve written on damp bar napkins or asked a receptionist for a sheet of paper when I’m in a waiting room (they always look at me like I’m crazy). I’ve stuffed these pieces into pockets, drawers or purses and found them later (like little treasures).
I am now a post-it fanatic because I can jot something down and stick it to a page in my journal for later. If I sit down with the intention of writing, I seem to struggle, but give me other activities to do, and ideas flourish. So post-its, especially at work, are really handy for keeping phrases that will blossom later. I’ve also started keeping index cards in my purse, next to the bed and in the car.
I’ve written things right as I’m falling asleep or in the middle of the night and then can’t decipher them in the light of day, but I hold onto them and hope that someday I’ll figure it out.
Now most of the time I jot notes and then write during my brief train trip home. I get out the bare bones and then mentally work it out, editing it later in my journal and on the computer.
That’s so hilarious. I am very much similar to Kimberlee. I write on almost anything. My purse is as heavy as rocks because I have so many pieces of paper and receipts (and among other things). My new favorite so far has been Post-it notes!! They sure do come in handy for haiku!
I can’t really remember how long I’d to go until I wrote something down. I’d usually find a pen and scribble in the palms of my hand or my arms or back of my hands, or I kept repeating the same lines over and over again until people who passed by me think I’m a crazy mumbler with hallucinations or something. LOL. Luckily nowadays, I have more than enough receipts to keep writing instead of mumbling!
There were times when I did wake up in the middle of the night to write something down. Of course, the next morning, I’m at lost because I have no idea what it means. If I can sift through what I can remember from my dreams, I can infer from them and go from there in order to finish the poem. If not, I put it aside and hope that it’ll turn into a butterfly later on.
What is the most frustrating for me is that I have composed so many poems with pieces of music (like Mozart, Bach, or Chopin) in my dreams. Somewhere in my subconscious, I’m fighting to wake up so that I can write down these poems because they are masterpieces, but I could never wake up. The next morning, these poems and pieces of music linger like honey dripping down a flower. But I am so frustrated because I can’t remember what I wrote!! AND on top of that, I’m not as musically oriented to even write those notes down on paper so that I can play them on the piano!! ARRRGG!!
Anyway, I think this was my favorite poll! The only thing I don’t do is writing in book margins. I don’t like the idea of destroying books that way. That’s just me.
I decided not to answer the poll because I have no idea where I write my poems. I writed them where and when I have a chance. I did not wrote on book margins but I wrote on print-outs from Gutenberg or on-line magazines often.
“Writed” arghh, no spell checker this morning, wrote -sorry
I learned a long time ago to write everything down in one pad. I have a huge container of filled journals under my bed. I also have a box of journals dating back to high school.
I carry a journal with me everywhere I go. I write on trains, at airports, before I teach a class, in between loads of laundry, you name it. But I revise on the computer, most of the time.
Carolee, how about another description of your journal? It’s fun to hear about it.
Everything paper, notebook, computer, mother’s basement may be filled.
Sometimes a name, note that makes sense only to me. Paper looks like clutter but its organized somewhere in my head.