This week has been very filled with insomnia and sleep. The yin and yang of life sometimes. I find that when I go many days without sleep, my writing becomes a haze of nonsense that I can only begin to decode after the crash happens. I write and write and write no matter what, just to keep myself flowing through life, and then make sense of it all later when I am more coherent. I have found that it's interesting to write in all different states of consciousness; when tired, when awake, drunk, mad, sad, happy. I produce such drastically different pieces of writing in each different emotional state. Playing with that helps me figure out what kind of writing style I have so I can easily transfer thoughts from each state into different pieces of writing. I guess it's a perspective thing. This week was the bathhouse event. Unfortunately I couldn't go because I had to work and I really wish that I could have. Instead of going, I looked through both of the featured poet's writings and explored them a little bit. Today I am going to talk about each of the poets.
CA Conrad is a very intersting fellow, with even more interesting pieces of work. He has completely lived off his writing, which I find really amazing. Most writers must get a second job because writing can't ALWAYS pay the bills, but CA Conrad has done just that. He has forcefully immersed himself into the world of writing and creating, and I think he has been rather successful about it. One of the most interesting things I have come across with him, is his use of SOMAtic writing exercises. These exercises intertwine the body and the mind and ask for a lot of strange actions. The idea is to connect the mind with the body and for you to use the experience of doing the exercise as a creative outlet. He also gains creativity from writing the exercise. It's like a complete process from start to finish. I read an interview about these exercises, and a lot of what he had to say was really amazing. He finds inspiration in everything, and his creativity is a form of his own protest. A quote that he said that I really liked was: "Creativity is our only true revenge. Being creative is the revenge against all the bastards trying to break the spirit of our fellow humans." This is so true to me. Being creative is also being comfortable. Allowing yourself to give in and caring less about the judgement you may or may not receive. Creativity should have no judgement.
Dawn Lundy Martin was the other poet speaking at the bathhouse event. I also really liked her poetry when we read some in class. Her style is one that I really like. Intentional breaks and lots of spacing. In the one of the poems called 'The Morning Hour", she uses brackets in between some of the lines. I like this because it is sort of an intentional thought space. It shows how she developed her poems and what kind of thoughts took place. I also think it goes nicely with the poem because it is about the morning, when our thoughts are often jumbled and out of focus. This whole poem really reminds me of the morning. Even when she is talking about things that don't relate to the morning. There are two sets of lines that I particularly enjoyed. One was on page 32; "What is familiar is the warm spice of a girl oiled in lavender". This line has so much imagery and I can almost taste the spice of the lavender on the tip of my tongue. It reminds me of my grandma, who always smells of lavender, and of the balm she would rub onto our cuts and bruises when we were little. I love imagery of scents, because they seem to stick in your mind better than any thought. It's like tasting something you haven't had in a long time, it takes you back to the last time, and you can remember like it was yesterday. The other set of lines I really liked was on page 33; "The footsteps are wet. Desire is wet. Is going step by step- the ash trail is wicked. The thicker wept." I love the way it flows when you say it out loud. It really flows, and the rhyming gives it really good dynamics. I also like the sentence 'Desire is wet'. It's the truth to me. Desire is something that makes you salivate. You want, you crave. Desire is there to hold you and not let you go. It is what you don't have and will make you sweat until you do have it.
This week was a challenge for me, but none the less challenge makes you a stronger person. Therefore, my writing is strongest in the toughest times. I want to develop my writing a lot more. It all feels really incomplete, so hopefully I can grow and be able to let my pieces grow with me.
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