So, I was thinking about “inspiration.” I tend to be an “inspired” writer rather than an hour-a-day writer when it comes to poetry (not prose, which I pretty much do every day.) I know that sounds like some kind of mystical thing, or a flakeout for not writing poems more frequently. But when it’s on, I know it, and the poems I write when I get the spark are ten times better than those I force myself to write when I’m not “on.” So now I don’t write when I’m not on. At the pace I wrote last year, it’ll take me all year to publish the poems I’ve already got, so I’m not freaking out about writer’s block or anything.
I thought about the last few years and my writing patterns and here are some things I noticed that inspired multiple poems:
1. Art – Going to galleries and museums really helps me create new ideas, new colors, and new images. Jeff Koons, Roy Lichtenstein and Japanese pop-artists such as Takashi Murakami and Yumiko Kayukawa are a few artists whose work has inspired multiple poems. The weirder, the better. The more I’m around art, there more I think in terms of the visual – and I think that helps my poetry.
2. Novels and short stories. I read a lot of books, but the ones that inspire the most writing lately have been magical-realist types like Kelly Link, Haruki Murakami, and Osamu Dazai (his dazzling Blue Bamboo is a must read for everyone. Loved it!) I think I wrote most of my third manuscript after reading Murakami’s After Dark and Blue Bamboo in quick succession. Of course, non-fic, like Hayao Kawai’s Japanese Psyche: Major Motifs in teh Fairy Tales of Japan, can also be generative: I wrote a lot of the Japanese folk-tale manuscript because of that book, along with a lot of Miyazaki films, which leads me to my next thing:
3. Movies and Television. Hayao Miyazaki’s films in particular, and sometimes good/bad (or so bad it’s good) TV fare like Heroes, Alias, and Buffy. Graphic novels and comic books probably should be included here too. My never-ending cycle of consuming pop culture and writing about it is probably unstoppable at this point.
So, these are the things which help me generate the most work, so I resolve to see more art shows, read more novels and short stories, and try to find more films to love (since there’s a writer’s strike, and there won’t be much television to love.)
One thing that surprised me was how little I’ve been inspired to write by reading poetry. I read a lot of poetry, multiple books a week every week, but not much of it launches me to write my own poems in response. Is this because of reviewing, which causes me to switch to critical mode automatically, or a problem of overabundance? I’m not sure.
Anyway, what do you think of the idea of inspiration? What inspires you?
Jeannine Hall Gailey served as the second Poet Laureate of Redmond, Washington and the author of Becoming the Villainess, She Returns to the Floating World, Unexplained Fevers, The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, and winner of the Moon City Press Book Prize and SFPA’s Elgin Award, Field Guide to the End of the World. Her latest, Flare, Corona from BOA Editions, was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. She’s also the author of PR for Poets, a Guidebook to Publicity and Marketing. Her work has been featured on NPR’s The Writer’s Almanac, Verse Daily and The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. Her poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Poetry, and JAMA.
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Galleries, visiting other poets or artists, reading poetry (it works well for me!)
Also, long hot showers or driving.
Sara
I seem to be the opposite–I always want to write poems after I read them, but I watch a lot of TV and have never been inspired in that way (maybe not watching the right shows?). Conversation is actually my best source of ideas, which is a problem since I’ve been on a solitude binge lately.
jeannine
Ooh, conversation! That’s a good one!
Karen J. Weyant
It’s weird — but poetry readings inspire me more than just sitting home and reading poetry. Venturing into fields “outside” of poetry — nature or history — helps me. But I agree with Sara: conversation, with poets and nonpoets alike, inspires me.
Anne
Mmm. Lots of things inspire me, actually. Reading poetry, about half the time. Poetry readings or recordings, about half the time, depending on what kind of attention I pay. Highway driving, especially at night. Highway driving while listening to recorded poetry. Certain music. Science and nature documentaries, especially when they use the specialized vocabulary of their field. Browsing in bookstores or libraries, just reading titles. The weather, when I listen to it closely.
Oddly, the surest-fire inspiration source I can think of is going up to the tenth floor of the main library on campus and reading a few MFA poetry theses. I read them fairly quickly, and don’t worry much about whether I like them or not; something about the unfinished, unpolished feeling of them seems to give me a way in that I can’t always get from a published book.
(Yes, MFA-holders … some poet may sneak around in the library of your alma mater and read YOUR thesis sometimes, too. You just never know. 😉 )
Collin
Definitely films and music. Travel has always been a big motivator and reading poetry and going to open mics and readings, too.
Radish King
The river, the sky, Bach, love, hate. But mostly reading. Everything.
jeannine
Oh yes, music, poetry readings (I agree, Karen, they are different than reading a book,) travel, rivers – you guys are good! I’d forgotten all of these!
Joannie
Poetry readings and reading poetry, reading everything (although I know that I should read more nonfiction, and I don’t).
Motion, on the bus, on my bike, not so much when I’m driving–probably a good thing. The sky, yes, always.
Collin mentioned travel, which made me realize the difference between things that inspire me to start writing (the things that get me into that zone) and things that I write about. Travel inspires me, but the poems don’t arrive until weeks or months or years after the adventure.
Penultimatina
A good, strong dose of classic rock is all I need.
*blush*
Driving around on a cloudy day and listening to the radio helps, too. Especially when it’s classic rock.
cogresha
Miyazaki Movies always make me want to write!
Muser
Collecting odd phrases heard or read–or looking at common phrases from an odd angle; making lists; asking myself why I’ve never written a poem about [fill in the blank]; strange or bad jobs remembered; writing some words and letting them pull the line into the next lines, almost like a fish under water tugging he line. I enjoyed your post very much. Thanks.
jeannine
Thanks for all the inspiration ideas!
And Mary, there’s nothing to be ashamed about in liking classic rock.
Muser – bad jobs are the best for inspiring poems!