A new way of writing poetry
I don't write poetry.
By that, I mean I don't sit down with the goal of writing a poem. Nor do I think of poems to write and save them for later.
I think a lot; I overthink more often than not. My thoughts tend to tangle together into a giant mess in my head that feels impossible to uproot.
One way I learned to cope was to start pruning. I hack away at the tangle, snipping thoughts here and there.
They land in my lap, half-finished and incomplete. I gather them up, lay them out like newspaper clippings, and make a collage, which is a poem.
It's a big mental thing. I've always struggled externalizing my thoughts in time to remember them.
Last night I drove home from the train station after saying goodbye to my wife. The drive takes about forty minutes. I was going over feelings in my head, forgetting them as soon as they appeared, knowing it would take too long to get home for me to write them all down later.
I reached toward the passenger seat, opened my bag, and pulled out my digicam. I lifted it with one hand and hit record. What followed was a 22-minute long recording of the dark prairie road in front of me and the thoughts unspooling from my head.
I'm excited to listen back and make another poem from what I find. I think I'll continue trying this method of "writing" and see where it takes me.
To read my existing poetry, you can look at my writing page here. It's under heavy construction right now.