fishingpoetFri, Apr 4, 2008 There is a lot of ‘rad doodles and poems’ that are pretty pointless, and the internet has helped accelerate the dissemination (and appreciation) of them.
Add near instant communication to the mix and you a have large number of people devoting a large amount of time to swapping what essentially amounts to nothing.
At the outset, I say I'm not sure where this is going, but something in these (and a couple other places) struck a chord when reading.
I could very well be guilty of posting some of the poems that you hinted at, and they could very well amount to nothing (I'm not positioning you as having "called me out," just getting at the impetus)...but it took a great deal for me to actually post what I wrote. And no, this is not going to turn into a sappy "I've been writing since I was 9 and people always tell me my poetry is beautiful" birdwalk. Bear with me.
I chased a post grad degree in poetry. But my reasons for going had more to do with the idea of being active—mentally—in order to understand more. About myself, yes. About others, yes. About the world, yes. I write as a continuation of that exploration, which is, I think, in agreement, with your position around cultivating inner space as a way to improve the collective human experience.
But writing for the sake of writing is not enough in and of itself. There is a necessary physical aspect that closes the loop...again your thoughts on the effects of creature comforts ring true to me. Going back to my "writing since I was 9" comment...in the end, it does have to start somewhere. Not everyone can have a life as a doctor or insurance salesman and find themselves as an adult jotting down canonic verse. But as with any start, the true art comes with practice, with some pain and life and dirt under the fingernails. So I applaud the 9 year old writer, but I also curse the marketing shark that leverages the emotional dysfunction that drives people to pay for their books (yes, yes, I say this having not had a book published as of yet).
For me, instant communication falls into this same arena. And it is becoming increasingly difficult to find space and audience where the line between novelty and artistry exist. Even as I write this I'm aware of how incomplete my thoughts are and how easy it is to fire off a worthwhile response. As I said earlier, it was difficult to begin posting work online. I come from an old-school mentality where I wish above most anything to have my work actually published in good old-fashioned ink on the toothiest paper the press will hold. But it's more than the medium. It's the message. And if it truly is about affecting change in the larger human condition, it's also understanding that to make a difference, to stand and speak, to fight the inertia of disenchantment by pushing awareness and desire for change...you've got to stand in the shit with everyone and let the merit of your thought do its job.
A brief aside before posting—-I am totally impressed and thankful for the level of thought and discourse here. It's been a while since I've used these muscles... it's good to feel thoughtfully overwhelmed again.
There is a lot of ‘rad doodles and poems’ that are pretty pointless, and the internet has helped accelerate the dissemination (and appreciation) of them.
Add near instant communication to the mix and you a have large number of people devoting a large amount of time to swapping what essentially amounts to nothing.
At the outset, I say I'm not sure where this is going, but something in these (and a couple other places) struck a chord when reading.
I could very well be guilty of posting some of the poems that you hinted at, and they could very well amount to nothing (I'm not positioning you as having "called me out," just getting at the impetus)...but it took a great deal for me to actually post what I wrote. And no, this is not going to turn into a sappy "I've been writing since I was 9 and people always tell me my poetry is beautiful" birdwalk. Bear with me.
I chased a post grad degree in poetry. But my reasons for going had more to do with the idea of being active—mentally—in order to understand more. About myself, yes. About others, yes. About the world, yes. I write as a continuation of that exploration, which is, I think, in agreement, with your position around cultivating inner space as a way to improve the collective human experience.
But writing for the sake of writing is not enough in and of itself. There is a necessary physical aspect that closes the loop...again your thoughts on the effects of creature comforts ring true to me. Going back to my "writing since I was 9" comment...in the end, it does have to start somewhere. Not everyone can have a life as a doctor or insurance salesman and find themselves as an adult jotting down canonic verse. But as with any start, the true art comes with practice, with some pain and life and dirt under the fingernails. So I applaud the 9 year old writer, but I also curse the marketing shark that leverages the emotional dysfunction that drives people to pay for their books (yes, yes, I say this having not had a book published as of yet).
For me, instant communication falls into this same arena. And it is becoming increasingly difficult to find space and audience where the line between novelty and artistry exist. Even as I write this I'm aware of how incomplete my thoughts are and how easy it is to fire off a worthwhile response. As I said earlier, it was difficult to begin posting work online. I come from an old-school mentality where I wish above most anything to have my work actually published in good old-fashioned ink on the toothiest paper the press will hold. But it's more than the medium. It's the message. And if it truly is about affecting change in the larger human condition, it's also understanding that to make a difference, to stand and speak, to fight the inertia of disenchantment by pushing awareness and desire for change...you've got to stand in the shit with everyone and let the merit of your thought do its job.
A brief aside before posting—-I am totally impressed and thankful for the level of thought and discourse here. It's been a while since I've used these muscles... it's good to feel thoughtfully overwhelmed again.