…I’m finding the connections between the artist and the art interesting. I find myself paddling deeper and deeper into the creative process of art where I think the process is similar to that of writing. Last night I went to bed thinking of concepts and this morning my questions broadened out to structures of poems, and I found this question “How do we organize life” (the opening question in the PBS series Art21) stimulating. What is it we are trying to structure, ourselves or the world around us? Do I write to understand my identity or to understand the world around me? Sometimes, I find these questions simply unrealistic, meaning that, how can I write something if I’m continuously worried about how and why I’m writing it, but at the same time, the unconscious reasons for writing it might be shaping the structure of the piece. (If that makes any sense).
The poem as a structure is what I thought next. The structure is the poem, the shape of the poem, the body of the poem, and the words (or language) in a poem. One artist in the PBS series, Richard Tuttle states “A painting or a sculpture really exists somewhere between what it is and what it is not”, perhaps a poem is like this as well. Perhaps the connection with reader, the text, and the words places the poem somewhere in-between. What does this mean for the writer? I’ve stopped thinking about this here, mostly because I have to go to work, and because I want to read some more. (Place thoughts here). Or not.
When you ask, Do I write to understand my identity or to understand the world around me? I immediately answer both because for me the personal is political and the political is personal.
But then these days I’m branded as a radical…
Hmm. Interesting. Maybe there is no distinction–we are a part of the world, the world is a part of us.
Radical? I’m not sure I’d classify you as that, you’re the way you’ve always been; however, there’s nothing wrong with that, if we were all the same, what a bland world it would be. Although I understand the need of some to label others.