Thursday, February 03, 2011

16 Questions

  1. Can I create a poem that appears simultaneously spontaneous, yet inevitable?
  2. Repudiating is hating, yet why does it motivate writers?
  3. Can I think a thought whole?
  4. Can I write from impulse and not rules?
  5. Do I care more about what a line is than what a poem is?
  6. Why does rhythmical energy equal psychic energy?
  7. How can I make the line itself syntactically interesting?
  8. How can I make the language move; create a sense of doubleness; celebration & confrontation; rhythm of expecting?
  9. Why is writing abstractions frequently taught as a technical problem when it's really an ethical problem?
  10. Why is psychoanalysis, like poetry, is not only impossible, but also extremely difficult?
  11. Can I write with lyricism but also truthfulness?—lyricism alone is not what makes literature valuable.
  12. Why do many teachers use the Socratic method, which is about being a bully, instead of empathic questioning?
  13. Why is it that half the skills of a creative writer are psychological sturdiness, yet the culture demands that we specialize in pain instead?
  14. Can I write without fear of ghosts (parents, authority figures)?
  15. Can poems be written that people need, not that they praise?
  16. Am I courageous enough to put anything clear and unevasive down on paper or not?