Sit still or soar

Fred — my friend and colleague at Seashore Family Literacy — and I enjoy a friendly dispute. I say poetry comes alive when read aloud. I want to hear the words soar across the room, dip in the corners, and circle back in a way that sweeps me up and leaves me a bit dizzy and sated.

Fred likes to absorb the poem as it behaves on the page, where he can digest each word and its place on the blank canvas of paper. I see his point.

But I’m greedy, I want it all.

Now, with Linebreak, we can both be happy. Linebreak is an online journal publishing one poem a week, complete with audio versions so visitors can both read the words and savor the sound.

The site combines a clever name with quality work and a clean design. For those who want to sit still, and for those who want to soar with sound, Linebreak fills a need and greed.

In season

This week, on the wet, west coast I spotted the first crocus bursting from the earth. The next day, I found this spring-ready poem at Four and Twenty, a downloadable short form poetry journal.

Untitled

Brendan McBreen

plant everything
that hurts
the earth
will forgive you

Once daily

I like Amie Hollmann’s work (at right). As an artist and writer, she shows style. But even more, she’s got commitment.

Her Verse Project is a daily creation of art. She’s made a one-year commitment to create a daily expression of faith on a postcard-size canvas.

I’ve been thinking a great deal about commitment and marveling at the various demonstrations of creative dedication.

The prolific poet William Stafford is famed for awakening at 4am each day to pen a poem. In his 79 years, he wrote 67 volumes of poetry.

Earlier this month, as I was berating my own writing practice (as in, Why don’t you write a poem a day? What’s wrong with you?) I received a Valentine note in the (real, old-fashioned) mail. It was from Carrie, a client-turned-friend, who wrote that her New Year’s resolution was to write a message by hand daily. I was that day's recipient. I love this idea.

Much like Amie’s Verse Project, Carrie’s daily commitment provides pleasure for both the creator and the audience. Perhaps this is the secret: When we create for ourselves, we make others happy, too.

Judyth Hill offers a simple and profound perspective on creative commitment. In the poem Take It from the Top (from her book Black Hollyhock, First Light) she writes:

Writing a poem a day is difficult.
But if the world can start from scratch daily,
how hard is it to notice?

And the crowd cheered 'Yes!'

“The best medicine is not Prozac. It’s applause and accomplishment.”

— Regie Cabico, a three-time National Poetry Slam finalist who teaches workshops at the Bellevue Inpatient Adolescent Unit in New York City. Cabico has been featured on two seasons of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam and his work appears in over 30 anthologies.

Capricious creativity

Feeling daunted by the creative process? Don't fear, says Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love. Creativity isn't in you, but on loan to you.

Gilbert has thought long and hard about creative genius. Here, she gives a funny and lifting talk about the "maddening capriousness of the creative process."

Filmed at TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) in February, the annual conference brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives — in just 18 minutes.