The Artist's Relationship with Silence

"Phillis Levin, poet-in-residence at Hofstra University on Long Island, N.Y., describes how her inspiration comes from retreat. 'For me, poetry in particular comes from this source of silence. It's the opposite of that white noise that's created by too much stimulation.'

A creative retreat in the digital age - Los Angeles Times

My daily quest is to find that hour of silence. In this silence I can create a poem. I can edit a poem. I can listen for its wonder or finally relent that it falls flat. Without silence, I can't write. Nor can I read. Silence is my muse and accomplice. Without it, I'm useless as a creative.

In this article, John Lopez asks artists how they balance their need for solitude to create with the hyperconnectivity of the world. Many cope by turning off their devices and escaping to a retreat. Some see the effects of the digital age on their audience. One novelist , Gary Shteyngart preidcts a dystopian future where "long form text has disappeared and novels themselves are considered gross relics of a past age." Hopefully, this is just his imagination; I sense it's a warning signal.

Even if there isn't an audience to consume my work, I still will turn off the world seeking silence.  Expressing myself in the written word is not just an artistic pursuit. It's matter of survival and self-care.

A Suite of Poems

Would you pay 5 dollars to listen to 5 poems?  What if you also had an accompanying booklet with the poems? In Pobiz,  this would be too expensive. Since books are expected to be around $10 -$12, paying half that for just 5 poems seems exorbitant.  But if Nikki Giovanni was hustling her early poems in this market, I'd think she would do just that. This is a woman who even made a "single" for her books putting an A and B poem on a 45. 

I want us poets to return to this era when poetry was literally for the people. When poets didn't wait for market listings and chapbook contests to sell their work. I'm a throwback poet. I want a solid collection of about 60 poems. I want to distill those into 10 for a vinyl record LP. I want a 5 poem suite to package as an EP. I want a 45. The literal record and perhaps the Itunes download.

Is this wrong? To think that poetry has a monetary value? Spoken Word Artists (SWA) would reply no. In my neighborhood, an SWA  may sell their work after a performance and at the local supermarket. I don't have the confidence to hand sell in such an aggressive way.  But I wonder, why not? Why not go the full Maya Angelou route and sell poetry on cards, cups and plates?  Does this cheapen the art?

Maybe it does.

Maybe it broadens the audience.

#JustFinish

I’m a member of a virtual poetry workshop. We meet Saturday mornings at 8 am PST on webcam via Tinychat. It’s one hour of line-by-line feedback, laughter and pobiz discussion. Less the pobiz discussion.  There are 5 members, but only 3 have virtually met: Evelyn, Jonterri and me.  Even though I tell them my birth name, they still refer to me as Viz and that’s ok.  I try to keep my identity on the web semi-secret (ip addresses tell the truth) because I’m an educator.  My students tried their best to Google me and only found a few references to my young organizing days. Yay me for beating Eric Schmidt at his own game!  

Each Friday, we email each other a submission set.  The next morning, scraping the sleep out of our eyes, we read our poems, try to figure out appropriate line breaks, titles and offer encouragement.   I’ve been in several poetry workshop groups and collectives. This is by far the best. Even when I show up without poems, just with ruminations Ev humors me. She’s tired of that so I must produce a set again. 

I’ve only sent out two subs in the last 10 weeks but I’m new to this game.  It’s a gamble, but it’s also a bit fun. Where’s the fun? Not in rejection but in assembling suites(or sets) of poems each week. Ev and Jay are quick to point out what works and what doesn’t, what fits and what juts out. It’s taught me a fine lesson in grouping poems. 

I hope we never part. I hope we grow into annual retreats, quarterly workshops, and monthly goals.  But even if we just stay 3 women meeting on the Internet until we’re all grey at the edges – it will be worth it.

YouTube - Poet Ntozake Shange on Mental Health

Poet, Choreographer Ntozake Shange speaks about living with a mental disorder at the National Book Club Conference in July. Thanks to the folks at the African American Literature Book Club we have the video below.

Nature Poetry vs. Ecopoetry

Juliana Spahr

'Juliana Spahr, a poet in San Francisco, put it brilliantly,' says Skinner. 'She said the nature poet focuses on the bird and the bird's nest, but doesn't turn around to confront the bulldozer … Ecopoetry expands the frame to include the bulldozer.'

'Nature poetry is observational,' adds Snyder. 'It is gazing at nature, and also about the psychological state of the observer. Whereas ecopoetry ....is looking for wildness wherever one can find it. Not just in wilderness areas, but everywhere human beings let go of the controls.'"

Dean Kupers in an article about New Poet Laureate W.S. Merwin - LA Times

Submit a review of a poetry book about ecopoetics to the Journal of Ecopoetics