Poetry

[Kev]

During my early morning walk around the neighborhood this morning, this poem started reciting in my mind, as a reflection of the spirit I was feeling.. It was a sign I needed to share it.. Hope you enjoy..

“Not Nature’s Desire” — by KWayne

Alpine meadows and a carpet of spring flowers

Quietly is the breeze as it buzzes my ear

‘Round a bend winds a tender stream, while

Slightly sway the stately pines.

Meditations are these upon this Earth, as

The buzz of the breeze meets the buzz of the street,

As chaos unloads and

Kicks my heartbeat.

Under the rain and urban grey,

Jabs of noisy disorder.

‘Round a corner spills garbage rot, as

Altruism surely struggles.

Distressed cries of the wretched many, and

Window displays for the lucky few.

Idyllic notions shattered, and eyes can’t see, as

Dog shit peppers the sidewalks too.

Hands of a gentle touch,

Like that carpet of spring flowers.

Like the might of the stately pine, that

Youth and naïveté presume to seek.

Towers of glass, and sways of steel, those

Temples of greed, with the messy shit and mire.

Puppet Kings and useless thoughts.

This is not Nature’s desire.

? ? ?

Discussion

[James]

Definitely not what nature intended Kev! Now what I want to know is, what in the hell do you do when you get the all too inconvienient internal words that begin falling into a poem? What happens when you do not have a pen and paper and you are caught out haha!? And did this fall quite easily without much editing?

P.s Especially like the lines about chaos and kicks my hearbeat.

[Kev]

Oh my, great questions..

I have a hunch you might already be onto my answers, because perhaps maybe it’s the same for you.. I’m guessin’ ?

I write poetry only when I’m truly inspired, and so it can flow out of me quite easily.. Although that’s not always the case – I’ve been known to labor over it, and labor hard, especially “getting it just right”, in some cases taking multiple months to refine it.. And I know it’s a cliché, but in some cases it’s straight up channeling, where the feelings and spirit just come out onto paper effortlessly, and whole lines spontaneously pop into my head without thinking.. “Chaos unloads” and “Kicks my heartbeat” were two of those lines.. Just popped in..

At some point, I’ll share the one poem I have that was purely channeled without thinking and every line just came to me and they all flowed into one another perfectly – although to many folks, it won’t make any sense, especially using the rational mind..

Hmmm, also, I tend to get a feeling or an idea and it swirls around inside for a while, and gathers itself until it’s ready to come out.. During this time, I start to compose and hold onto the initial lines, to get it going.. Sometimes it gets to the point where it explodes or erupts, and paper & pen better be ready.. One time I was building an idea over 3 days, and running lines in the shower, and it got to the point where I couldn’t contain it any longer, jumped out of the shower, grabbed my journal, and released it.. Lol..

But sometimes, I’m unable to hold onto the words initially and it has to be written down just as soon as I get the idea.. I’ve been out & about going around on the bus, and a poem starts to come out, and I have to grab whatever paper I can find.. I used a pamphlet-sized bus schedule one time (too small).. another time a sticky note (too small).. and have been known to look around on the street for a stray piece of paper, even glancing at a trash can.. Lol..

So it’s variable, the writing process.. Happens in different ways.. I also have a method I use to facilitate flow, which I refer to as “planting seeds”.. but shhhh, I can’t tell you any more.. It’s a secret..

I wrote “Not Nature’s Desire” maybe 4 years ago.. I recall it fell very easily with clarity on what I wanted to say.. Actually, I started to paint an idyllic natural scene with the first stanza, then the “chaos” and “heartbeat” lines spontaneously appeared, and then the poem itself guided me into what it became, and I just went with it, and it was an easy one.. Probably not edited too much either.. Everything gets edited to some degree, of course, just to make sure I’m saying what I want to say how I want to say it..

Okay, so does that answer your questions?.. Lol..

[James]

All I can say to this Kev Is I can RELATE! The shower comment had me laughing as I have done this sooo many times!

This explanation gives me alot of clarity around my own process. And I can totally agree with the poems that to the rational mind seem just like pure nonsense being espoused. It appears to me that the rational mind is both a blessing and a curse in the creative arena. It has too many expectations of itself and others.

However, I try to trust what the pysche is gifting me. Like Jackson Pollock I let the words paint themselves on the empty canvas regardless of sense or nonsense. Usually when I come back to re-reading later on, like flecks of gold in a prospectors pan there are threads or whole poems in of themselves to be developed.

I have like you also tried to really force and edit and edit and I feel alot of the time things come out contrived. I do think alot of Poetry happens in the moment, when we sit idly too long trying to force the muses out from within, I think they know when we are being too demanding.

Lastly something I use if im ever caught out is the voice recorder on my phone. The shower (not so much) but in the car or any other activity that takes the mind into that all too wonderous meditative state; I make sure something is always on hand so I can get those golden threads down as quickly as possible!

[Kev]

Ah, I like what you say there about the rational mind.. It’s definitely involved in creativity, but it has to be a balancing act.. Useful for making sense and clarity, but one can get too far into “this doesn’t make sense”, at which point you’ve just over-analyzed.. Blah.. I don’t do that anymore.. I prefer what some might call nonsense – which to me is perfect, because it’s pure creativity..

And it is very nice to talk to someone who just lets the words paint themselves, as you put it, regardless of the sense or nonsense.. I mean, really, some people think there’s a right and wrong way to write or create or express yourself.. I just can’t wrap my mind around that sense of limitation.. I gave some of my poetry to a guy that lived in the same building as me, and a couple hours later he knocked on my door and gave me a print-out of one of my poems that he had altered and said, “Here, I fixed one of your poems”, and then proceeded to go on about what was wrong with it.. For one, I was livid.. And two, WT?.. And three, really?!.. Lol.. And guess what, the poem he rewrote was “Not Nature’s Desire”.. Ha!

Another buddy of mine tried to argue with me that there was a right and wrong way to write poetry, referencing some instructional book he had read about how to properly formulate poetry.. What’s with these people??.. Lol..

And also, what you say there about going back to what you wrote previously and finding flecks of gold or threads you can draw upon to write a whole different thing.. I’ve actually used that approach.. I started writing my autobiography a few years ago, and the initial stuff I wrote was just getting a bunch of stuff out on paper.. Lots & lots of stuff, without much coherence.. I set it aside for over a year, and then went back to it and started to use certain little bits as “seeds” that spawn short stories in & of themselves, or some little snapshot from life I can paint a little picture of, or whatnot.. My buddy Chuck initially turned me on to that approach..

And man, I’ve been wanting to get a voice recorder recently myself – mainly because I’m getting a bit older and ideas can be more fleeting and I forget shit.. Lol.. But I’m old school – it’s impressive that I even have a flip phone.. So I was thinking about the small cassette tape recorder I used to have back during university to record class lectures.. Lol.. But I’m sure I could find a small digital recorder.. Dunno.. I don’t even want a cellphone, so an upgrade isn’t the direction I’ll be going..

But coulda been handy on the bus when I was looking for a scrap of paper.. Could also be handy to chatter into it and go back later and pull out seeds and threads and expound on them.. Sounds like that’s what you already do.. ?

[Author]

Replies