Monday, March 15, 2010

Poetry belongs on paper (a poem)

This poem was written rather quickly as I was waiting for a video of Mary the Goth Theologian to download onto Youtube.  Rather than get up off the bed, and get my notebook, I typed it on my Mac.  There is something rather sterile about writing poetry on a computer.  So, as you can read that was the theme of the poem.

This is also the ongoing pursuit of the poetic skill I should have acquired by sleeping on Cadair Idris.  The only real way for me to discover whether I have poetic prowess beyond song-writing is to offer this to people who actually read my stuff.  So, here it is - offered as a screen capture from my Mac.

5 comments:

Jarred said...

I love the poem and I totally agree with the sentiment. As a witch and a writer, I learned a few years ago that some things simply must be written by hand.

To me, writing is an act of creation and an act of magic. Guiding a pen over paper and building each letter, word, and sentence up stroke by stroke is an integral part of that act. With each line and each dot, I imbue what I'm writing with vitality and essence. Typing something up doesn't involve that same kind of process, so the energy is different.

There are some things that I might even type up and edit on the computer at a later date. And that's fine. But the original, the first draft, must be done by hand.

As an aside, if it's really significant to me, it also absolutely must be written out in cursive, which I find more laborious than printing.

Pastor Phil said...

Thanks Sally,

When you like something it makes me feel good, because you are quite the respectable writer and thinker.

Pastor Phil said...

Jarred,

I love your ritual process of writing, and sense of becoming one with the poetry. Writing in cursive make the process even more fluid. How distinguishingly artsy of you.

cern said...

Way cool. :)

Pastor Phil said...

Thanks cernie bro

Always appreciate your supportive thoughts.