Feeling the Beat: Music and Poetry

Sometimes to my wife’s chagrin, I have eclectic taste in music. She rolls her eyes when I listen to country or rap music… As a poet, I feel this wide range of music is beneficial to my writing because music and poetry are closely related artistic expressions. Listening to different styles of music helps me get a better feel for how to use rhythm in my writing.

Rhythm is important, not just as a requirement for a collection of words to be called poetry, but as a tool in that poetry. The rhythm controls the pace, the emotion, the sound, the feel of a poem.

Though I read and listen to a lot of poetry, sometimes it helps me to listen to the more obvious beats of music. The train of Johnny Cash trudging by Folsom Prison. The slow, drawn out emotion of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” The upbeat (in tempo and emotion) sounds of the Black Eyed Peas.

Songs that employ changing rhythms are particularly interesting. Sometimes rhythm changes as emotion or content changes, and mastering this is good for poetry. “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen and “Load Out” by Jackson Browne are good examples.

All of this music derives meaning through both rhythm and content. Just like poetry.

p.s. My wife’s blog is right here. She posts amazing vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free recipes.

Poetry Reading Announcement: Tonight at Emmaus Road

I’ll be reading a poem during service this evening at Emmaus Road Church. Service starts at 6pm, and the church is located at 1609 S Boston Ave in Tulsa, OK.

Emmaus Road is an artistically-minded faith community that regularly features music, poetry, and visual art. We feel that a creative God would want His people to exercise their creative talents. This doesn’t necessarily mean we only celebrate “Christian” art. We know that there is Truth in all sorts of art, even if those works aren’t “religious.”

Maybe I’ll see you there.

Twittering Away: How Twitter Has Affected My Writing

When I joined Twitter, I wasn’t thinking of how it would impact my writing. I joined ’cause I kept hearing friends have conversations that included things like, “Did you see so-and-so’s tweet about…?” Even though I’m an introvert, I like to know what’s going on in certain social circles (does that make sense?), so Twitter started as a social tool (and I’ve gained many new local friends). Then I began following news agencies and a few celebrities (mostly funny ones), which made Twitter a source of information of varying levels of importance. It’s been quite recent that Twitter has begun impacting my writing.

I started following a few publishers and literary magazines and noticed one of them mention #poetparty, which I soon learned is a Twitter chat that happens every Sunday at 9pmET/8pmCT. Regular attendees of the poet party represent a wide spectrum of poetic expertise and success. There are new poets and seasoned poets, unpublished and published, young and not quite as young :-p. Sometimes there’s a certain topic proposed by the moderator, @32poems. Sometimes there is a feature poet who is interviewed both by the moderator and by other users who have questions. Other times there isn’t a set topic, but we always find something to talk about. Here is how chatting on Twitter works.

The #poetparty immediately led to new followers and followees (is that a word?), which increases my opportunity for daily interactions with creative types, but, more importantly, some of those followers have become what I would call friends. A few are people whom I can email a new draft and expect a detailed critical response. And I of course would return the favor. Having a group of readers who are also writers is important for a poet. Though the commentary of a non-writer has value, fellow poets have a unique perspective gained from developing their own craft.

Twitter is also where I learned about the online arts community One Stop Poetry (@onestoppoetry) which is a group that, in addition to other art and poetry related things, hosts One Shot Wednesday. On each Wednesday, poets post poems on their own blogs then share the link on the One Shot Wednesday blog. We read other poets’ work and offer criticism and support. This is also a chance to get non-poet readers to read samples of our work.

This new attention on my writing motivates me to write more. I can’t make up excuses or flippantly claim writer’s block when there is a deadline to meet and expectant readers waiting. I do better with a little pressure.

Writers, has Twitter affected your writing? How?

Readers, has Twitter affected how much you read? Who you read?

What about Facebook? you may well ask. I post links, but there isn’t the natural flow of conversation that Twitter has.

Writing: Equipment Matters

In addition to writing great poetry, mediocre prose, and clever essays, I play tennis. Skill is the most important need when playing the sport, of course, and this is built through a combination of natural talent and practice, but equipment is also important. Different playing styles benefit from different types of racquets and different types of and tensions of strings. I’m an all court player, which means I use a mix of groundstrokes from the baseline and serving and volleying. I was formerly more of a serve and volleyer, but more or less shredding the cartilage in my knees has made that style more difficult. I digress. My playing style requires a racquet that has good touch and doesn’t necessarily produce a lot of power (I do well enough at knocking the hell out of the ball), so I prefer the Prince Precision series of racquets, and I use synthetic gut strings (real cat gut strings don’t fit my vegetarian ethics very well) to enhance my feel of the ball further.

As vain as it sounds, the right equipment is important for writing, too. I cannot convince my mind to write a decent first draft on a computer (with the exceptions of academic essays and blog posts). When I write poetry, I have to write it out by hand, then I type it into my computer for editing and storage. For prose, I prefer a typewriter. Imagine your cliché image of an author with long beard, cigarettes, small desk, manual typewriter, and so on; that’s me, though my beard isn’t too long, yet and only contains a few grey hairs.

I carry a (vinyl-covered) Moleskin notebook with me everywhere I go for writing poetry and jotting down notes for other writing projects. It’s a perfect fit for me. It slides right into my coat pocket or rear jeans pocket. I also carry a black Pilot G2 ink pen because I like both the feel of writing with it and the look of the words on the page. Portability is essential. If I get an idea or have a moment of inspiration, I can take out my notebook and immediately write down my thoughts.

My four typewriters usually stay at home. I have a manual black Royal typewriter (1920s?), a faded lime green Olympia portable manual typewriter (1950s?), an Underwood early electric typewriter (1960s?) that’s enormous and doesn’t fully functions, and a 1980s electric typewriter (can’t remember the brand right now). There’s something wonderful, mystical even, about writing on these typewriters. And there’s the music of writing–tickity tickity tick ding schwoop tickity tickity tick ding…

I have nothing against computers. They definitely make the editing process and storage easier, but they just don’t have the same feel when writing.

What is your preferred writing equipment?

Crosswords, an Addiction

Hi, I’m Randall, and I’m addicted to crossword puzzles.

I was sitting in a cafe earlier doing some work. A guy came in, purchased today’s Tulsa World, and asked if he could sit in the empty chair next to me. I welcomed him. We sat in silence as he read the paper and I searched online job ads (my job is to help other people find jobs). He eventually noticed a seat open up farther from the door and having grown tired of the cold draft, he moved. As he got up, he tossed a section of the newspaper on the table beside me. It was the “Scene” section, which contains the comics (the most insightful page of the paper) and two crossword puzzles. I don’t know why he chose to leave this section behind. Maybe he has no interest in local food and music scenes, or he noticed, via ESP or something, that I was looking for a fix for my addiction. Either way, I’m thankful.

This won’t fix me for long, though. The Tulsa World crosswords, provided by the NEA and King Publishing, aren’t very good. They have a difficulty level that is usually a couple steps shy of a Monday New York Times puzzle, and the clues are often poorly written. Also, they don’t progress in difficulty like the Times. It’s fun to start with the ease of Monday and work through to the more challenging puzzles of the week. Monday puzzles usually take me 10-20 minutes, and Friday and Saturday puzzles may take me hours. Then there is the grand Sunday puzzle, what a jewel!

Crosswords puzzles are an appropriate addiction for a writer, I think, and especially for a poet. They are great for all writers, or anyone who wants a better vocabulary, because the solver must find the perfect word for the meaning that is implied in the clue. Sometimes a clue has a relatively easy answer, but the first answer that comes to mind doesn’t fit. We must then search the thesaurus of our minds for the correct synonym.

I say they are especially good for poets due to the mathematical processes of crossing certain words. This mode of thinking helps me see the meter of my poems better. If I need to count iambs, syllables, or rhyme scheme to fit a poetic form, I need to think both mathematically and creatively. Even free verse has a certain rhythm rooted in mathematics. Pardon the pun.

So if I ever tell you I’ve been sober from crossword puzzles for any length of time, stop calling me a poet. I am no more than a sad man.

Argument

This semester I am taking Advanced Comp II, which focuses on written arguments. Arguing is nothing new to me (I enjoy debating politics and theology with friends, especially after a few drinks), but I haven’t spent much time studying this mode of discourse. When I argue, I try to follow a logical progression in presenting and defending my ideas. I think studying this topic further will increase my ability to do this both orally and in writing.

Obviously, the most direct impact of this course will be on my academic writing. A lot of writing that English majors do is argumentative. We must read and interpret works of literature then write about our interpretations. Our audience is usually a mix of professors and fellow English majors, people who will quickly notice any holes in our arguments.

I wonder how learning more about argument theory will affect my non-academic writing, my poetry and prose. I suppose it will have an impact in helping me write about certain themes. My poem, “On the Closing of Rec Center at Owen Park,” certainly makes an argument about the value of recreation centers in communities, which is both a values argument and a political one.

Political poems aren’t common for me, but there is always a theme or themes in need of support through my use of content and metaphor. Perhaps studying argument will make more more aware of how my content relates to those themes. I hope, though, that I don’t become too didactic in my writing. There’s a difference, I think, between expressing a theme, even one side of a divisive one, and moralizing to your audience.

Now I’m thinking about what role a writer should have in defining morality in society. People do look for expressions or denials of social values in writing, but I think that’s different than what I called “moralizing” to an audience. When I say moralizing, I’m thinking of something like Puritan writing. I’m not really sure I have a conclusion to make about this concept. When I do, I’ll write a fantastic argument about it.

Well, it’s back to the homework.

Editing: Do it Backwards

Ever feel like even the most pleasurable activity falls into a rut? You’re still successful, perhaps. You still like what you’re doing; your audience still enjoys the end product, but you know it could be better. Maybe it’s time to change positions. I’m talking about the quality of your writing, of course. and about modifying your editing process.

Sometimes I get caught up in what I’ve written and find it impossible to edit sufficiently. I try as hard as I can to read it with a critical eye, red pen in hand, looking for those slight errors that separate good writing from great writing. But I get stuck. The problem is that my mind tricks me into reading what I thought I wrote, or intended to write, instead of what is actually on paper. One technique I’ve found effective at overcoming this issue is reading what I’ve written backwards.

I don’t mean read each sentence backwards. Backwards sentence each read mean don’t I. <— Worthless idea.

What I like to do is start editing at the last paragraph and work one paragraph at a time back to the beginning. This allows me to break myself away from the plot as a whole and look at each paragraph, each sentence, each word on its own.

It’s nice to write a great story or essay, but if you want it to be its best, you must pay attention to these details. Look at the paragraph to make sure it accomplishes its task. A well-written paragraph should have a certain level of independence. Likewise a well-written sentence has a job to complete within the paragraph. I think you see where this is going. Every word is important.

Reading your work backwards is only one editing technique, but I hope that looking at things from this perspective helps.

Cheers.

On Inspiration

Haven’t heard from the 9 muses lately? That’s not a big surprise, is it? Greek mythological figures are notoriously unreliable. Do you really need them to write? Writing definitely feels easier and better when I feel inspired. There’s something inexplicable, mystical even, about being arrested by inspiration, by a glimpse of an idea that makes me pull the car to the side of the road and scribble in my notebook.

But it doesn’t always happen like that. Sometimes writing is hard work. Here are a few ideas to get you through those times when you can’t find inspiration:

1. Keep Writing. Giving up won’t get you anywhere. If you don’t continue writing regularly, despite this obstacle, you’ll lose both the mechanics of your craft and the ability to feel inspiration when it does resurface. When I don’t feel it, I switch from trying to force poetry to writing observations in prose. It keeps my pen moving and my eyes open.
A lot of my poetry is observational anyway, so it helps me to sit in a cafe or mall or park or wherever and simply jot things down. I might not have the perfect metaphor that I would so easily find under inspiration, but writing done during spells like this makes me a better writer. Sometimes what I collect turns into poetry later. I revisit my notes and find myself mentally returned to when I wrote them, and that’s when I can shape them into verse and add all those fancy rhetorical devices like simile, metaphor, alliteration, etc.
Lurking in the corner of the cafe and writing about people not your style? Try structured exercises. The internet has no shortage of writing prompts. Here are some from Writer’s Digest. Even though most of my poems are free verse, assigning myself forms is often helpful. Another way to play with the form idea is to assign yourself a different genre of writing. I write mostly poetry, so I may assign myself fiction or non-fiction prose writing.

2. Give Yourself a Deadline. Self-discipline is not my greatest virtue, so applying external pressure helps me a lot. Maybe your deadline can be self-imposed. I sometimes commit to a contest or submission deadline and, instead of sending something that’s already ready, I tell myself that I must write a new poem, story, or essay. One way to avoid giving in to submitting a previously completed work is to choose a contest/submission that is topical.
Another method of deadline setting I employ is telling my editing friends that I will send them something by a certain date or at a certain interval. This can be easy to skirt with excuses, so choose friends who won’t let you get away with that.

3. Read. If you care at all about you’re writing, you should read a lot anyway, but I think reading is especially important when you feel uninspired. I try to read a mix of books that includes authors who write in a similar style as I and authors who write quite differently. Challenge yourself.

4. Edit. Your work and others’ work. I have a few friends who share writing with each other. It makes us all better, I think. In regard to editing my own writing, I find that lack of inspiration can actually benefit the editing process. It allows me to look at the mechanics of writing. Even if you write free verse or prose, there are mechanics to consider. Your poetry may not have set rules for lines and stanzas, but it does have a rhythm that can be worked on with or without inspiration.

I hope these thoughts are helpful. Perhaps I’ll have more to say on the matter another time.

Dealing with Distractions

So you have an idea. You sit down at your typewriter and start to peck it out. You’re a few sentences in and starting to get a good thinking and typing rhythm going, then one of the kids cries.

You go deal with that dirty diaper or, as is often the case at my house, the two year-old assaulting the one year-old. You sit back down at your writing desk and try to remember where you left off. You see the last few sentences, but the flow of thoughts isn’t the same. You start typing anyway, wasting a few sentences just to get back to the zone, if you will. You get going pretty well then start wondering if anyone commented on your exceptionally clever Facebook post.

Three people have ‘liked’ it, but you were looking for a passionate debate to erupt. Anyway, two of the three probably missed what you were trying to say. Speaking of trying to say things, you have this story to finish. You start typing again. tickity tickity tickity ding swoosh tickity tickity tickity ding swoosh

(I hope you enjoy my typewriter onomatopoeia)

Now it’s dinner time. By the time you eat, bath and bed the kids, and watched tv with your significant other, it’ll be late and you may or may not get back to even trying to write more today.

So how should we deal with distractions? I’ll share a few ways that I deal with distractions, but this is still an issue for me, so please comment with your suggestions.

My kids distract me more than anything. They aren’t yet old enough to understand if Daddy needs some alone time for writing. I’ve tried freeing myself from their distracting abilities by writing before they wake in the morning or after they’ve gone to bed at night. This has yielded mixed success. I’m not a morning person, so I have trouble getting up before they do. If I do, I end up sitting in the kitchen with a cup of tea trying to convince my body to find full alertness.

Sometimes I make arrangements with my wife to exclusively watch the kids while I write. In exchange, I offer to watch them for her while she accomplishes something. This hasn’t worked well. If she is watching them, they decide that they need my attention and will do whatever is necessary to get it. My writing area is a portion of the living that is separated by a baby gate, so there isn’t the easy option of closing the door.

The other option with the kids is writing somewhere other than at home. I try to schedule some time each week when I can go to a coffee shop and write. I can’t do this too much, though. I have no interest in being a bad husband or father by being perpetually gone. Destroying their families has worked out swell for some writers, but I’m not going to try it. Usually the coffee shop time is well-spent, but introduce my other major distractions: friends and internets. I frequent several coffee shops in Tulsa. I mean frequent. I’m hard-pressed to walk into a coffee shop within 20 miles and not know the barista or at least one fellow regular customer. Depending on which friend(s) I see, I may or may not have trouble shortening the conversation to focus on work.

Then there’s the internet. The problem (well one problem) with writing on a computer is the availability of, well, anything. Even during the writing of this brief blog post, I’ve stopped to check Facebook and Twitter and to look at pictures on geekytattoo.com. If I were writing something more serious, I might turn off my wifi to avoid this distraction, but this depends on self-discipline, something I lack.

What are some of your common distractions? How do you deal with them?

Reading: Li-Young Lee

My latest order from Amazon came in the mail yesterday. It was for 3 new books, all by one of my favorite poets, Li-Young Lee. The books are Rose, the city in which i love you, and Book of My Nights. I’ve read most of the poems individually. It’ll be nice to have them all together in their proper volumes.

I first read Lee in an American Lit class a few years ago. We read “Persimmons” and “This Room and Everything in It.” Both poems talk about his father, which was something I needed to see. I didn’t know how to write about people close to me at that point (and have only improved this skill marginally). I learned from him not to try too hard to write about someone. Don’t force a theme based on a personality trait. Just write about them honestly and simply. Write about instances that may seem insignificant. It’s in the little glances at a person that we see the big ideas.

His use of language is another remarkable feature. His diction is simple and straightforward , but don’t let this fool you into thinking that the poems are simplistic. Easy words form complex metaphors.

I could probably continue writing about him, but I want to get to reading these books. Here is a video of Li-Young Lee reading for UC-Berkeley’s Lunch Poems program:

“Some things never leave a person:
scent of the hair of one you love,
the texture of persimmons,
in your palm, the ripe weight.” -from “Persimmons”

p.s. In other book news, I ordered the Poets Laureate Anthology from Barnes & Noble the same day; it finally shipped this morning. I’m mildly annoyed, but it was free to me because I had a gift card (not entirely free…gift card for $25; priced at $27.68, so I paid $2.68)