Category » Blog « @ Webbish6

Sorry for my lack of posts – I had a surprise visit from my little brother and his wife (and he’s coming back next weekend,

Is it that time already? Where I’ll be at AWP:

Thursday morning, 10:30-11:45 at the Bookfair at the Steel Toe Books table #436
Signing books with Superstar Steel Toe author Mary Biddinger

Friday morning, 9 AM (early!)
Giving a little Pedagogy on the persona poem at the Poetry Pedagogy Forum

After that? A few readings, some fun times, maybe a museum or two…a trip to SoHo…bookstores…let me know if you’re doing anything fun and you think I should be there! Looking forward to meeting you there!

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?

Had the chance to see Peter Pereira and Nancy Pagh (author of “No Sweeter Fat” from Autumn House) read tonight in Redmond, and both did a terrific job. Peter read my favorite poem from his new book (Twenty Years After His Passing, My Father Appears to Us in Chicago, at Bobby Chinn’s Crab & Oyster House, in the Guise of Our Waiter, Ramon) Also had a fun poet-friend dinner beforehand, which was nice. I’m really lucky to know such supportive, wonderful writers.
I’ve been a bit grumpy lately, but hope it is just a funky-funk I will snap out of. I apologize to all who interact with me and who read this blog. I’m sure cheerleader levels of pep will return soon.
On the plus side, Heroes and Masi Oka nominated for Emmys!

Update: I know one of the contributing factors to the grumpiness is my three-year-old laptop computer, which has started giving me memory error and registry corruption problems, and now runs so slow I can barely open e-mail, much less a Word file, in 20 minutes. Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi – (I mean, shiny new Sony laptop on sale now) you’re my only hope!

Yippeee…Good news to come…

My heart and prayers go out to the friends and family of the dead at Virginia Tech. I am saddened but not shocked. Campuses are one of the least safe places you can be. And evil, unexplained evil, is all around. I am suprised by all the goodness that still surrounds us, even in darkness. I am surprised by hope. It takes more courage to love than to kill. More strength to have compassion than hate. Being a hero in this world means, sometimes, ignoring the evidence, and reaching out to others, saying yes, saying, you are worth risking.

I’ve never had to cancel a reading before – I’m really sorry that I won’t be able to perform tonight at ParkPlace Books. Doctor’s orders to stay in bed and keep my lung infection from turning into pneumonia. But you should all go see Natasha Moni, who is a very talented poet and Lana Ayers, another terrific poet who is MC-ing.
So to those I miss – I’m sorry! Have a great time without me.

In other news, blech. I’ve been given the grandfather of all drugs, apparently, to treat a very intractable deal in the sinuses and lungs. It’s called Avelox. May it do its work quickly. I fear this has put me behind in all my scheduled work. Not to mention poetry writing and submitting. Well, it will all have to wait a little longer. Note to self: take more vitamins when travelling around for readings. Also, go to the doctor the first week you have the weird cough, not the second or third.

Just heard that 2River’s blog is podcasting some poems of mine:
www.2river.org/blog/archives/2007/03/jeannine_hall_g_1.html
Thanks!

Just rolled back in from Portland, after not one, but two semi-sunny days in a row – a miracle in the Northwest in March. The reading with Josh and Marvin Bell went really well – there were about seventy people there, the library was a wonderful venue, and I got to hang out with my cool Portland friends afterwards at the lounge at Pazzo’s (fancy!) I even sold a handful of books – enough to pay for dinner for myself AND Glenn! Now to rest up until the April 4th reading, and then Chicago.
How do we do it? Volume!

An exploration of two poems from my new Japanese-fairy-tale-anime-themed manuscript is up at Endicott Studios! Thanks to 2River View, who originally published them, and Endicott, which is a great place to find out about folk and fairy tales and mythological explorations in literature.
Wow! Thanks for the heads up (again!) Mary A!

I’ll be working the Pacific University MFA program’s table (#312 – which is back in the far corner) with the fabulous Dorianne Laux Saturday am (today). If I haven’t seen you yet in Atlanta this AWP (you know who you are), please stop by and say “hi.” (Reb, Charles J, Peter P?)