Why did I start to write poetry? What was the catalyst? It all began when I was around 18 or 19 years old. I was working at a local college, in the technical department that supported academics and students in their teaching and learning. I was seconded to the library, where one of the tasks was to take valuable paperback textbooks and prolong their lives by removing the flimsy covers, and dismantling them, before pasting them onto card and then reconstructing them with a laminate cover. Thus I learnt how to book-bind.
While working in the library over those months, I happened by chance to walk past the literature section, and there... in the middle shelves, I found the works of Dylan Thomas. I admit, at first, it was heavy going, but after a while of reading the Welsh bard, I became seriously hooked on poetry. The library was throwing out a pile of old poetry books that had seen better days. I managed to grab a dozen or so, and took them home to read - I still have them in my collection today. One particular Penguin edition contained the work of Charles Bukowski, Harold Norse and Philip Lamantia - three American poets that inspired me further.
Soon afterwards, I was writing my own experimental forms of poetry, and eventually, I began to perform my work at festivals, open mics and so on. It's important to acknowledge your roots and inspiration. For me the encounter with these four poets led me down the road to a lifelong love of poetry, both reading and writing.
What was your inspiration? What has fuelled your passion for poetry? Why are you writing poetry right now? Answers in the comments box below please!
My inspiration has been probably quite selfish, I’m a solitary person, i might only see one person face to face once every other week. I’ve loved and lost the requisite amount from my life. I feel I can reach out and touch others lives in some small way, to me it’s a way of showing my feelings belated or not, but being able to reach out I have found quite cathartic. There is also that sense of joy in the creation of something that will hopefully live on in some other way, with other people. And in the end I guess find it very fulfilling.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your response Matt. Any form of expression is worth it, even if there is only an audience of one... but at least, as you are on Invisible Poets and some other groups, you have gained a much larger audience for your creative output.
DeleteAt first I didn't know that the childhood songs I used to write and hum in the fields of wheat and barley while stumbling behind my parents were what would later on develop into a form of poetry. In fact, the passion for poeticizing the world around and bringing it into creative writing has already been there in such songs
ReplyDeleteI created out of the blue and sang in Tunisian spoken language (i.e. an amalgam of Arabic, French, and Barbarian) at the age of ten or so.
I still remember myself beading words into smooth-running utterances and reciting them beautifully before a group of gleaners at tea time, which made everyone around express their admiration and admit that I am a very talented teenager, a real gift to them to while away the tedious hours thanks to what would later on turn out to be heavy poetry. Putting pen to paper and speaking out my mind began at a later time as I fell in love with Charles Baudelaire's The Flowers of Evil that was taught by our French teacher when I was a student at secondary school. The truth is that I cut my teeth on both Charles Baudelaire and Aboul Qacem Echebbi, a well-known Tunisian bard famous for Songs of Life. In the beginning, I started writing short poems in French and Arabic between 1994 -1999. But I have indulged in penning the outpouring of poetry in English since 2000 because I thought that English was a much more musical language (compared to Arabic and French) capable of matching my burning yearning for writing out from the heart what sounded like singable poetry. Words in English felt like creaking doors waiting for me to poeticize almost everything in an inspiring way. Honestly speaking, for me, English appears to be like an inspiring realm. Each an every word is impregnated with sense and significance. Actually, I am not purely Baudelairian or 'Chebbian' because there are quite a few other crucially influential poets such as Dylan Thomas, Herbert Zbigniew, Czeslaw Milosz, and Seamus Heaney.
Thanks Rafik - that's quite a story, and a panoply of luminary poets to cite as your influences. Most impressive, and it shows in your stellar poetic output.
DeleteVery much appreciated, Steve 🙂
DeleteAt first I didn't know that the childhood songs I used to write and hum in the fields of wheat and barley while stumbling behind my parents were what would later on develop into a form of poetry. In fact, the passion for poeticizing the world around and bringing it into creative writing has already been there in such songs
DeleteI created out of the blue and sang in Tunisian spoken language (i.e. an amalgam of Arabic, French, and Barbarian) at the age of ten or so.
I still remember myself beading words into smooth-running utterances and reciting them beautifully before a group of gleaners at tea time, which made everyone around express their admiration and admit that I am a very talented teenager, a real gift to them to while away the tedious hours thanks to what would later on turn out to be heavy poetry. Putting pen to paper and speaking out my mind began at a later time as I fell in love with Charles Baudelaire's The Flowers of Evil that was taught by our French teacher when I was a student at secondary school. The truth is that I cut my teeth on both Charles Baudelaire and Aboul Qacem Echebbi, a well-known Tunisian bard famous for Songs of Life. In the beginning, I started writing short poems in French and Arabic between 1994 -1999. But I have indulged in penning the outpouring of poetry in English since 2000 because I thought that English was a much more musical language (compared to Arabic and French) capable of matching my burning yearning for writing out from the heart what sounded like singable poetry. Words in English felt like creaking doors waiting for me to poeticize almost everything in an inspiring way. Honestly speaking, for me, English appears to be like an inspiring realm. Each an every word is impregnated with sense and significance. Actually, I am not purely Baudelairian or 'Chebbian' because there are quite a few other crucially influential poets such as Dylan Thomas, Herbert Zbigniew, Czeslaw Milosz, and Seamus Heaney.
When did I start writing? In grade 10 my English teacher showed interest in my work. She gave me the entire year’s curriculum to complete over summer holidays. And, I did. She encouraged the ink in my pen to write.
ReplyDeleteAs time progressed I returned to writer’s insecurities questioning everything I wrote. However, about five years ago I was overwhelmed by a sensation. It was, to say it mildly, an epiphany of sorts. When I say overwhelmed, it was as if I was being guided. Truly, I mean, my hand wrote, but unconsciously. I would not know what was written until after going back to read the work! And, liking it!
There is no reason why this happened save to say, I heard an inner voice telling me to write, and to keep writing. And, to date, I have with great enjoyment!
Discovering your platform has only furthered and fed my desire to pen (tap) on. Thank you, Steve for All you do.
Universal Peace & Love 🪷
We always remember our best and greatest teachers Karin. I recall one of mine awarding me a prize for writing while I was still in primary (elementary) school... even though it was probably contrived and clichéd drivel!
DeleteThat’s a great origins story, Steve! I have written poetry on and off since I was in my mid-teens, I think
ReplyDeleteIt shows in your writing Christian - be good to know who your influences might be!
DeleteIt was my late father-in-law that revived a passion for poetry. He had a photographic memory, and said he had never learned a poem off by heart. Yet he could recite by heart great chunks of poets such as Keats, Tennyson, and (a particular favourite of his) Swinburne.
ReplyDeleteI didn't have the photographic memory he had but set to learn one of the poems he used to recite "The Garden of Proserpine" by Swinburne. I was fascinated by the rhythm and use of rhyme and alliteration that Swinburne used, and wondered if I could also do something similar.
Many people start writing poetry by writing down their thoughts and inspirations in free verse. However, as a scientist obsessed with patterns I found initially that it helped to stick to a strict form, like a sonnet, and use metre like iambic pentameter etc.
It was only after I'd mastered that, that I found the confidence to write free verse, and know that I could sculpt the internal structure of a line and make it sound good and not prosaic - at the same time not worrying about metre and rhyme.
Currently I'm in a phase of writing in rhyme and fixed forms again, having seen many challenges on your Facebook group "Invisible poets".
In some ways I find that rhyme increases creativity, because since there is a limited choice of words, it can take you in directions that you might not otherwise have thought of.
I'm enjoying reading your fixed form poetry Iain, it comes across as unlaboured and authentic.
DeleteAlso forgot to mention - poets who have influenced me recently are Philip Larkin, T.S. Eliot, G.M. Hopkins, Dylan Thomas (of course!). Also Shakespeare, and I often find myself using biblical phrases and metaphors. I aim to capture a kind of spirituality in contemplating science.
ReplyDeleteYes, all wonderful luminaries in the realm of poetry! The KIng James version of the Bible is particularly poetic - someone recently called the Bible 'Poetry on Fire!'
DeleteMy journey began when a teacher actually told me if you give it a chance, i believe you will love it. She was right and i started writing wanting to be a great poet...
ReplyDeletePoetry is and will always be my therapy from my days in fostercare to where it's taken me...
That is great to hear. Teachers are often some of our most powerful first instances. It's great to hear that this one was a very positive and encouraging one that led you to love poetry.
DeleteI was around thirteen years old and I wanted to attend a two week drama workshop put on by my local theatre during the school holidays. My mum couldn't afford the cost of the workshop but you could send a short play in to be performed and the best three selected could do the workshop for free. My play was selected and I was asked to help direct and perform in it also. This, along with the belief of my English teacher was the start of my writing. When I started work at the age of seventeen, I would write poems for people's special occasions such as weddings, birthdays, retirements and over the years this has developed to writing poems using different poetry forms and I have written a few short stories and a fictional book based on a event in my life. A lot of my poems are observational on human behaviour as I love people watching and seeing how people react differently to the same situation.
ReplyDeleteFrom little acorns mighty oaks may grow! Keep going!
DeleteHi Steve! Your invigorating blog encouraged me to reach back and think of those years long ago when I used to sit in the college library and read selected works of Whitman, Wordsworth, and Frost. Yet I really thirsted for the works of the beats… which sang to me in a more modern vein of association. I started writing because I wanted to put into words the thoughts that daydreamed as I watched turtles float across the sky, or ripples chase each other when I would throw a rock in an old Texas pond way out in the swamp. To capture emotion and wring it dry, for all its sorrows and triumphs. I still do to this day as a hobby, and now as a bit more than that. It’s become a bit of an obsession… but then dreams often become obsessions before they can become a reality.
ReplyDeleteThat is so good to hear!
DeleteI begin to write as a form of escaping from my self inflicted isolation. I never had friends to share my thoughts with as I grew up. Poetry became my outlet as a confidant. Later it became a way of recording my voice as family archivist. These days my writing is meant as a legacy for my family.
ReplyDeleteI hear this Imelda. To be honest, I never had many friends either. My teens and early twenties was a lonely time, even when surrounded by others. I think writing poetry and songs as a way of connecting with myself and with others.
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