The infinite variety of poetic style, themes for poems, and opinions about poetry – what’s good, bad, indifferent (and why) – never ceases to amaze me. Yesterday‘s Stanza meeting was another case in point when we were treated to such splendid diversity. And at the end of the day, liking a piece or not is almost an irrelevance if we consider that perhaps we should be celebrating the creativity of the human mind first and foremost.
Yesterday wasn’t just about the Stanza meeting, of course. I started the day with a ‘rehearsal’ of my long poem Crash. Although I was the only listener, I am more than ever convinced of its merit as a performed piece – either monologue or play.
Which is why one of the things I’m most looking forward to today is a meeting to discuss if, when and where my reading of Crash will fit into this year’s Ripon Theatre Festival in June. When the white smoke appears you’ll know about it!
That meeting will happen during my two-hours stint at the library as writer-in-residence – which will then be followed by the weekly Write-on Ripon writing group. So Tuesday is, as ever, a very ‘social’ day when it comes to writing. I also expect to get some time working on re-reads of final drafts of things as previously mentioned (before, during, and after my library and group sessions) – which makes Tuesday a minimum of a 5-hour creative day.
Today’s question – which was not driven by anything that happened yesterday but by an event some time ago – is whether there should be any subject which is ‘out of bounds’ for poetry i.e. about which one should never use a poem to explore…
#amwriting #writing #wrtingdiary
Ian Gouge - Writer & Publisher 