Benthic

I painted "Benthic" first in Watercolors and then scanned and added a gradient. I did nothing else to it. Click to view larger.

Living Inside my Words

I'm taking a poetry class that meets on Monday nights. I've been doing this off and on for several years, with Dawn McDuffie at the Scarab Club. Every Monday night, we get an assignment. Every Tuesday morning, God willing and the creeks don't rise (Forgive the cliche!), I write a new poem, based hopefully on my assignment. Every Tuesday night, I review and and revise. Every Wednesday morning I review and revise, and so on as the week passes until Monday. Monday I spend a good part of the day working on my new, week-old poem, and finally print copies to take to class.

The reason I do this is because I have learned that if I inhabit the poem, if I really live inside it, I make discoveries about myself and the world that enhance the poem, at least for me. And each discovery is a little joy, a little euphoria. Sure, there is struggle, panic. Sure there is the tedium of searching thesaurus for the right word and of changing phraseology, only to change it back, three, four five times. But then, there is that aha moment when something inside the poem opens to admit me deeper into its mysteries, deeper into myself.

The poem may still not be done, but it's one step closer, and there will hopefully be more ahas and more revisions. Not to beat a dead horse, but revision means to Re-VISION, to re-see, and vision involves awareness of the self and world, of the interconnections of things. And it applies to my prose writing as well. It's a glorious process. It's why I write.


(The photos represent a first draft poem and a poem further toward completion.)

(Because No Polar Coordinates in my "Master Blog", even though I already posted this to Half-formed, I am posting it again here. Posted By Mary Stebbins Taitt to Half-formed, the Processes of Mary Stebbins Taitt at 2/04/2009 08:09:00 AM)

Stupid distractions

I have ADHD and cannot seem to concentrate on doing what I need to do
no matter what. I'll be working away and have an idea and I go off
on a tangent. If something didn't bring me back to earth I might be
lost out there in la la land forever.

A while ago, while visiting, I made a little clay face. I
photographed it and then later, I gave my cloy face a forehead--as he
didn't have one. Today, I gave him eyes and dorked around with his
beard. Did I need to be doing that? Absolutely NOT! Aiee. OK, off
to the store, we have nothing for dinner! And I need to get sandwich
meat to eat in the car tomorrow. Long Drive! Bye now.

I'll be gone til Monday, may not be able to get on-line.