Red Room Where the Writers Are

I joined Molly Fisk's Facebook challenge group to write a poem every day for the month of June. Two years ago I set off on January 1 with the same intention, but to write a poem every day for the whole year. In both cases, I failed. There's something important to priming the pump. I have had to let go of my perfectionism to write a new poem every day. Some of the exercises have worked out. Most have not. And it is not the fault of the prompt, by any means; I so much appreciate Molly's tackling this and sharing the project with us.

 I write largely by "inspiration," by getting a sound in my head that begins to take on the tune of a poem. When you set out to write by prompts (something I often assign as a teacher of writing), you must drop your expectations and just jump in for the play of the thing. It's like running grammar drills only it's not. . .

 One of my favorite poets, Dylan Thomas, wrote how poetry's main job is to bring joy to the reader, the joy of something he called God, that "force that through the green fuse drives the flower." To play with words is something children do and that we, as poets, try to remember to do. Part of this joy is not worrying about the end product, but when you have been practicing an art for a very long time, that gets harder and harder to do.

 It's been a good experiment even if a failed one: all depends on what "success" or "failure" were supposed to look like.