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?