Why do I write poetry? Q&A

I have been chatting with a friend Ian about keeping a blog and what he could do with his photography. You can check out Ian's photography blog or Flickr photostream. I love Ian's photos as I often find myself seeing the world through Ian's lens in a way I would never had imagined.

Ian emailed me on Sunday a range of questions that can be summed up as - Why do I write poetry? Here is my response to those questions (with only a little editing to make sure it actually makes sense):

• Inspiration. How do you come up with ideas?

Sometimes words simply pop into my head and they will not go away. Other times I see something, an event or what the sky looks like today and I want to express that experience.

• Construction. How do you go about getting your ideas down? How do you get from there's-this-idea-in-my-head to ah-what-a-nice-finished-poem?

It is easier when the words that come to me are in some sort of sequence and I go from there. But sometimes it takes a bit more work. I often know if those random words I jot down are worth working on further. I try to create the shell and then decide again if I want to do more work. Then it is a process of polishing and chipping away. The longest I have ever worked on a poem is over a couple of months but that was about a particular event that was difficult to write about because I was telling the story of other people I know. Though there have been a couple of times that I have found the draft of a poem I wrote years ago and came back to it.

• Editing. Do you edit as you go? Do you write in one go, then edit after?

Most of the time I try to get my thoughts down in one go but sometimes things stick out as I type them up. I have scraps of paper all over the place with bits of poems that will never been complete and others that were the 1st draft. Yet now I find it useful to type things up directly when they come to me. I have even resorted to typing them in my phone as a text.

• Style. How do you feel about formal styles of poetry - haiku (whatever it is), limerick, sonnet, pentameter etc, blank verse, ..? (Have you tried them all?)

I like experimenting with particular styles, to see how far I can go and to challenge myself. However more often I just write what comes to me and the poem tells me how it should be structured. I know that I need to teach myself more styles so I can simply write a poem that ends up being a particular style. Oh and limericks are evil and for some reason I find them impossible to write. I have only successfully done so once and that was when I wrote something about the work I do as a gift to a colleague.

• Why do you write poetry anyway? Aren't there enough starving poets in the world already? (Not intended to be provocative. I'm sure you have a serious answer to this.)

Have you ever read the blurb on my blog? That sums up why I write poetry ;-).

I do not expect to make a living out of poetry but I would love to be recognised as a poet in the same way I am a librarian and you are a teacher. I have thoughts constantly rushing through my head and quite often those thoughts are abstract and hard to explain. Poetry allows me to take what is in my head and create something that is no longer part of me. It is hard to explain but I often find myself wondering how I came up with a poem. Recently I have actually asked myself "where did that come from and did I really write that". I can not actually memorise my poems as I often feel like they are separate entities. What I enjoy most are other people's reaction to a poem and what they read from it. It makes me look at one of my poems with new eyes.

Now I am putting the challenge to Ian to answer similar questions in regards to - Why do you take photographs Ian? I have pasted slightly edited questions to better suite taking photos rather than writing poetry. I think these are the sort of questions that anyone who has creative pursuits may find worth answering themselves. I especially think Graeme should also answer these questions as well in regards to the photos he takes (be careful what you say :D)

• Inspiration. What inspires you to take you camera out to take a shot?
• Construction. How do you go about composing a photo as you take it? How do you get from there's-this-idea-in-my-head to ah-what-a-nice-finished-photo?
• Editing. Do you edit as you go with digital images? Do you take a lot of photos, then edit after?
• Style. How do you feel about particular styles of photographs - black and white, portraits, abstract (Have you tried them all?) {ok trying to sound clever and come up with some eg with little success}
• Why do you take photos anyway? Aren't there enough starving photographers in the world already? (This is intended to be provocative ;-). I'm sure you will have a serious answer to this.)
• Is there a photo you have seen that someone else has taken that has inspired you and how you take photographs?

Looking at the world through different lenses

Today I attended my first lecture so I can learn Te Reo Māori - The Māori language.

It is really not enough to simply say that Te Reo Māori is the language of the indigenous population of New Zealand. New Zealand is made up of two islands and within each island there are different groups or tribes and then within those groups... Well I think if you do not know anything about New Zealand then you should find out. And maybe I should become more comfortable writing about it as well :-)

The paper or subject that I am doing is called Introduction to Conversational Māori. In the next couple of months I hope to introduce who I am and talk about myself in te reo Māori. Thinking about this has made me realise I have not really talked much about myself beyond my writing. What I write is heavily influences by who I am. The resources that I think are worth sharing are things that I have encountered because of what I do in my life. Therefore...

Hello, my name in Allison Brown. I am Australian and was born in a suburb in Melbourne, Australia. I moved to the state of Queensland when I was 3 years old and grew up in the area known as the Sunshine Coast. My mother's name is Cherry and my father's name was Ian. I have known all my grandparents and my mother's parents are still a part of my life. I also knew two of my great grandparents on my mother's side, one of which was born in England.

My ancestors began arriving in Australia as officers on the First Fleet. One of those ancestors John Shortland (1769-1810) spent a lot of his life in Australia but spent his last years back in England. My connection to New Zealand goes as far back as the nephews of John Shortland, Willoughby (1804–1869) and Edward (1812–1893), who played significant roles within New Zealand.

Even though I have ancestors from places like England and Scotland, I only feel a connection to Australia as I think most of my ancestoring is too far back to truly matter. The way I try to express this connection is through my poetry, especially in how I view the world.

I will post my introduction in te reo Māori towards the end of Semester so wish me luck. To make sure it is accurate I will ask a friend who is fluent to check :-)

Note (03-04-2010)

I successfully finished this paper but my goals from this well... Reality has well and truly set in and I accept not that this is beyond my abilities. I am also not sure that this is something I should do.