A while ago I was discussing this problem with a friend; a person I do not know terribly well, and wish I knew better, but ever since she found out I wrote she has been SUPER supportive of me. Her suggestion was that I did not have enough drama in my life and I can see where she is coming from. I am fairly satisfied with my life. Certainly there are some needs which are currently left unfulfilled, but overall I have a really good life. I have a good group of friends who challenge and stimulate me intellectually, I am getting to travel and see parts of the world which have fascinated me for years, I have a job where I am, not to be too immodest, establishing an excellent reputation with the people I work for, and I am intellectually challenged by my job. Above and beyond the occasional co-worker stress there is no major drama in my life and thus, in my friend’s reasoning, no real motivation to write poetry. Looking back at my more prolific writing periods in my life I suspect she is right, however that only serves as an excuse for a lack of discipline. Ultimately writing is a skill which, like any skill, must be practiced and even if I am not producing pieces worthy of being published I need to be producing to keep the old writing wheels oiled. On top of that I have some vague memory of someone saying that 99% of what you write is crap however you have to work through the crap before you can get to the 1% that is worthwhile.
This is just something that has been on my mind recently and with growing urgency. I have a couple of ideas for poems, particularly trying to capture a moment I experienced on Seoraksan in Korea, and so the other night I sat down and started to work out a couple of thoughts. I fiddled with the Korea poem for a bit before I moved on to a poem I have had in my head for some time. I wasn’t able to stick with that one and thus moved on to another, more recent inspiration. This one is about eyes, particularly a woman’s eyes, and I managed to get down about ten lines before I finally called it quits for the evening, thinking I would return to it the next night.
Then I am driving in to work the next morning when I Snow Patrol’s latest offering, “Chasing Cars” comes on the radio and one of their lyrics jumps out at me:
All that I am, All that I ever was
Is here in your perfect eyes
They’re all I can see, I don’t know where
Confused about how as well
Just know that these things will never
Change for us at all
This is EXACTLY what I was working on saying, particularly the first two-and-a-half lines! Those gits! Fist of Impotent Fury™ Go!
At least they beat me to the punch rather than being like Ozzy and Russell who just steal my moves. Oh well, back to the ol’ Moleskine.
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