Tag: Poetry

Time in the creation of poetry and much else

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Robert Bly once said that to write a line of poetry requires two hours. Not so much for the actual writing.  Not even for the inspiration. Though certainly for the revision.  As well as compression and redistillation. And more revision.

His estimate, to me, seems quite optimistic.

I’m thinking it can be applied to many more examples of where human creative action is involved, too.

Go ahead, name one where you wish you had more time for the project.

When a painter writes poetry, too

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

I love the idea of artists who are inspired by other artistic fields. Too often, alas, they’re stuck in their own genre.

The term for what I’m discussing here is cross-disciplinary.

For example, I’m primarily a writer, lately of fiction as well as a poet, but I’m moved most intensely by classical music and then opera, jazz, folk, film, theater, and yes, painting and related visual fields. And I consider myself essentially a visual person?

Maybe you get the idea.

So a few months ago, I got news that a friend now living in California had a new book, Roots, Stones, & Baggage, and I assumed it was a catalog for his most recent gallery presentation. He is, after all, a marvelous painter, still active in his 90s.

What arrived in the mail was mostly his selected poems, revealing a whole other side of himself. They’re good, by they way. He respects craft. And there is a sampling of his paintings over the years, too.

I remember his reply during a Q&A at his gallery show opening at the Ogunquit Art Museum in Maine when he said he understood Blake’s poetry, something that left many dumbfounded. Think of understanding as gut-level rather than legalistic, OK?

The new booklet’s worth getting even for the wonderful introduction by his son, the celebrated novelist Jonathan Letham.

And the poet slash painter in question is Richard Brown Letham, still going strong.

Dipping in glorious waters

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

I haven’t written a real poem
in at last a decade
prose, especially fiction, has taken the fore
plus relocating to a remote Maine island
do I even consider the photography

How else do you think
other than by talking to yourself even silently
or through the fingers or feet

I’ve long preferred instrumental music, abstract
or airs in languages I don’t understand
and usually forget the lyrics and lines in scores
I’ve sung in concert

So I was swimming a half-mile a day
before the pandemic but haven’t been back
in deep water, fresh or surf, indoor or out till today,
my first venture in a little-known river pooling
too rocky for laps but perfect for extending myself
in the familiar chill under a cloud-strewn afternoon sky

yes, it’s glorious and refreshing
in a way I discovered my first year after college
in hippie abandon or the New England coast
and Dover’s Olympic pool later
it’s the sunlight and breeze
stretching above, around

a call to attend to my rooting as well
in meditation, prayer, Scripture, favored poets
all as seemingly impractical

Looking forward to another open stage night

~ Jnana Hodson ~ 2 Comments

Here’s a shoutout to our monthly open stage at the Eastport Arts Center at 6 tonight or, if the weather’s bad, the same time tomorrow.

It’s always a lot of fun, alternating live music and spoken word. I even tried a section from Quaking Dover last month, instead of poetry or fiction, and some found my reading emotionally moving. I did bill the genre as creative non-fiction rather than history. Well, there are no footnotes and I’ve focused on the overall story and people more than mere names and dates. The reaction has me looking at additional opportunities for presenting the work.

Here’s one band that showed up, and I’m hoping they’re back. They do look quintessentially Maine, and you can imagine their joyful sound.

The free event’s billed as “open mic” but I’ve long hated that spelling of “mike,” even if it’s become too widespread to counter.

Still, we had a fine turnout and went an hour longer than planned. I’d be really surprised if you wouldn’t be wowed by at least something. There’s so much talent around here.