© 2008 -- 2011 the Grandpa at The Word Mechanic. All rights reserved.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Words in air

There was a great piece on All Things Considered last night about the relationship between Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop based on the letters published in Words in Air edited by Thomas Travisano. It is definitely worth listening to, which you can do here.

At one point in the broadcast, talking about Bishop's approach to writing, Jacki Lyden points out, "It wasn't unusual for her poems to take decades to write." I can relate to that.

The poem "Getting On" took close to 20 years to write. I started it before my divorce from my first wife. It was a way for me to explore what was happening between us. I guess I just kept exploring until the poem made sense to me.

Over those 20 years, the poem did not go through any major changes. The metaphor of a migratory journey and the disconnect between the two migrants was obvious from the beginning, as was the general direction of the move from east to west. The images in the poem had sort of all come together over a period of a couple of days that were more or less spent journaling about the history of a failed relationship.

So why did it take 20 years? For one thing I never really had an end to the poem. I thought I did multiple times, but I would let it sit and then go back to it and pick it up and find the ending flat. So I'd rework the images and the lines in the entire poem. I'd take out what I thought was deadwood. I'd rethink this word and then that word. I'd change the cadence, the line breaks. I'd rethink the allusions. And it was all an effort to understand where the poem was going.

During those 20 odd years, my enthusiasm for writing, my energy for making it work, my success, and even my desire to write fluctuated wildly. The one thing that stayed constant was the poem. Then, shortly after I completed the manuscript for my book, I sat down and wrote the end of the poem. It was effortless. It was as if the words were in the air all the time.


the Grandpa's note: I don't really know how to tell the story of my writing career, other than to talk about the things I write. To be honest it helps me when I think about what I do. So thank you, Lilly. And thank you, Braja. I know this probably isn't what you were asking for, but it helps me to put it down. I have one poem (I consider it my best poem) that actually took forty years to write. But I also have some other poems that people have said are pretty good that I basically wrote in an afternoon, or less. I'll talk about them, too.

21 comments:

  1. Hi Gramps,
    See? More comments! The first time you posted this I thought it was about a parent letting a child go--individuating and going off on their own. Knowing its about your marriage, I like the way you weave a theme of choices throughout, I guess because staying together takes such contientious choice and determination and its so easy to get distracted by other roads.

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  2. I really like the idea that it's about letting a child go. (Totally separate from the concept of it being about a marriage. They're not the same at all, but I can see how it works.) When you teach poetry, the first thing you try to do is get students to recognize they are seeing "something" through the poet's eyes. What is it? But the next thing you do is help them understand that what goes on in a poem -- what it means (?) -- is really the result of how the poet and reader interact.

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  3. Phase of life impacts the "meaning" too I guess.

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  4. Grandpa: Our lives are poems that write US. That poems was a companion in your writing path. Once you arrived at a "certain" point, it revealed it's end and became "merely" a poem. Thanks for the meditations on being a writer! Aloha-

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  5. Thanks, Cloudia. I like both those ideas. Our life as a poem, and the idea of meditations on being a writer. I shall use both of those the next time I give a reading. However, I actually have to say that no poem ever becomes merely a poem. As long as it is there, it has its own life. And that life keeps adding to ours.

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  6. I don't think any writer is ever satisfied with their work. There is always a tweak that can be done, undone and redone.

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  7. Often you asked where we were going,
    but I did not hear; the wind
    was so strong it swallowed your voice.

    This part was so touching. I adore your poetry!!

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  8. I am not a writer, let alone a poet, so I only can tell you about the emotions I felt reading your poem. An unexplainable loneliness came upon me. Parents, partners, friends – we all need each other, but have different expectations. If they are not fulfilled one feels – separated, lonely – and words fail us – at least that’s what just happened to me.

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  9. That was so deep. I know that sounds cliched. But it is a very deep bunch of words. And like Ann, I liked the way you kept introducing the choices, hers, then yours, then hers...it wasn't a blame game, it wasn't a confessional...it was a report of something that was, and then wasn't.

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  10. A beautifully sad poem, Grandpa, that reminds me of the changes that come along in life, about the choices we make.

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  11. This poem is wonderful - and it is fascinating to learn a bit of what inspired it and how long it took to evolve.

    Poetry is clearly not for the impatient!

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  12. Thanks Grandpa. It makes more sense than you may think. Some times events in our lives do not make sense or we do not get closure until some time later. Even if that is 20 years later. It takes us a while to work through issues I guess. This post actually put something in perspective to me too. Words work in novel ways sometimes..I love reading your writing and the thoughts surrounding them too. Thank you very much for sharing.

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  13. I think all art forms work that way; sometimes they come together quickly and sometimes it is a slow progression.

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  14. Wow, people. I feel overwhelmed. Thank you so much for all your comments.

    JCN. Thanks for coming by, and I agree with you. No work is ever done, only abandoned.

    Willow, thank you. That means a lot coming from you.

    Fida, I couldn't have asked for a better response to the poem. Thanks.

    Braja, hi. "a report of something that was, and then wasn't." I like that. Thank you. That's exactly what it is.

    Thank you, Gran. Change comes regardless of whether we want it or not. Recognizing and accepting it can be hard.

    Thank you, Bee. And thank you for the comment you left on the actual post of the poem. Poetry takes patience, but it often arises out of our impatience.

    Thank you, Lilly, for asking me to share.

    Hi, Maria. That's just the way my dad was when he painted. Pictures often came together very quickly fo him. But he also had the patience to wait and letr the picture emerge on its own.

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  15. It is a fine poem and the biography of a fine poem is always interesting.

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  16. I liked your poem, Grandpa :) Seems it brought out the comments in others, too...nice exchanges here today...

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  17. It is nice to get so many responses. Thanks, Braja.

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  18. I admire and am awed by your taking decades to complete a poem, or anything for that matter. that you kept going back to it after all that time is amazing.

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  19. Hi, SassyTwoShoes. Sometimes the poem just won't let go.

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