How To
Can you write a poem on a deadline?
Like your life depended on it?
In a noisy café?
Like William Stafford?
In every room in the house?
There is no instruction
No paycheck or pink slip
There is no score
and no demand for it
Can you write on a whim?
A dare? A blind date?
Can you write on the weekend?
On the spur of the moment?
Can you write when you think
you have nothing to say?
______Colleen Redman / Poets United
October 8th, 2017 9:12 am
Absolutely love your poem. I’ve asked that question, especially a day before my poetry writing group.
October 8th, 2017 9:26 am
Ha, now that is a question worth contemplating. I bet all of us HAVE sat down to write when we thought we had nothing to say. Sometimes our poem bears this out; and then sometimes we surprise ourselves!
October 8th, 2017 9:53 am
I often write when I have nothing to say, but in the very act of writing, I find that I have something to say after all.
On another note: Did William Stafford write everywhere, as your poem suggests?
October 8th, 2017 10:05 am
Stafford suggested to his students to write a poem every day. When they balked at how hard that would be he responded “lower your standards.”
October 8th, 2017 11:09 am
Unfortunately not, fun question though!
October 8th, 2017 12:52 pm
no. I can’t write at all. ever. anywhere.
October 8th, 2017 1:42 pm
I think we all can… but i wonder if it will be any good…. I try to write every day just like Stafford suggest… and I agree with him.
October 8th, 2017 1:47 pm
Having written extemporaneously all my life, I sometimes find writing to a prompt in a short time frame difficult at best, sometimes inspiring, often frustrating. Loved your poem!
October 8th, 2017 2:42 pm
I agree with Mary – in my case, sometimes the results are not so good, sometimes a surprise. Smiles……
October 8th, 2017 3:26 pm
I believe after a while we grow so accustomed to writing that the words pour out whether we want them to or not….
October 8th, 2017 5:53 pm
Having gone through dry periods as I get busy with life, I do think that if I just sat down and wrote everyday whether I feel like it or not, that a poem would come out–but I get lazy–Love this piece–and I suspect that most poets would love this–
October 8th, 2017 6:13 pm
Yes, poems are like that. No price. Just free flow and sometimes you can and sometimes you don’t. I like how your poem here made me think. Great write!
October 8th, 2017 8:21 pm
Like Sanaa words do pour out on demand for me so I am content until one day when they dont!
October 8th, 2017 8:30 pm
YA! 3 or 4 xs a year in my writing group, on a mt. retreat we expose ourselves to this arduous exercise where at the end we often give the workshop/publisher a blanket party. (a blanket party is when someone enters the room, you throw a blanket over them and beat the crap out of them so the don’t know who did it : )
ZQ
October 8th, 2017 10:25 pm
Thought provoking poem I think though we all have something to say or to ponder, although it takes sometimes more effort than other days. Good one
October 8th, 2017 10:29 pm
The pressure of a deadline works sometimes! So yes!!
October 9th, 2017 2:03 am
Good question to ponder. I don’t think so, but maybe. Who knows the answer till we try?
October 11th, 2017 3:23 am
You sure can! 🙂