Crative Entry (Open Mic Reading)

When she woke up that morning she felt uncomfortable. She didn’t sleep a wink. However, she was wide awake. She looked at the watch that stood on the commode next to her bed. “Two hours left”, she thought. She felt how merciless the time was flying. She watched the second hand. Tick. Tick. Tick. Faster and faster. “That’s the strange thing about time”, she thought, “If you want her to pass by fast she won’t do you that favor. It seems as if one minute is forever. As if time knows how to make you feel helpless. We are so dependent on her aren’t we?” The coffee tasted different this morning. She tried to arrange her thoughts. She knew it was her duty. She had no other choice. No longer… It made perfect sense one month ago. But now? Something has changed but she didn’t know what. She decided to pull herself together. That was the only thing she could do. When she left her apartment she tried to look as ever. “People can only look in your face, not in your heart”, she thought. She enjoyed the distraction on the street. She felt relieved but she knew it was only for some minutes. When she arrived at the building the uncomfortable feeling came back. It was even worse now. She opened the big door with her trembling hands, passed slowly the hall and stopped at the big stairway. Every step she took made her heart beat faster…

Response On Chapter 12

Chapter 12 begins with a rather untypical sentence for a book that stresses creativity I guess. It is a quote in which J. D. McClatchy states that “A writer’s life is lived not in bed or on the road but at the desk.” Actually, I do not agree with this statement at all. Of course, a desk is an important place to arrange one’s thoughts. However, I think a poet can only write about things he sees or that he has experienced. So how can a desk be more inspiring than being on the road and watching his surrounding?

However, this chapter offers some useful tips how to finish one’s own drafts. One passage entitled “Writing Communities” emphasizes that the same poem “that seems great today can seem dumb tomorrow and wonderful again the day after”. That is way the author suggests letting other people read the poem since oneself is too involved in his own work so that one is rather unable to read it objectively anymore.

In the following sub-chapter the author provides some proposals how to get organized with his own works. It includes such basic ideas as “use a system of manila folders […] labeled NEW (,) […] FINISHED (,) NOTES” (,) “OLD MSS” (,) and “PUBLISHED”. Furthermore, it provides some clues where to send a finished poem (I’m wondering if a poem can ever be finished?).

Basically, this chapter offers detailed information what one has to consider when he sends a poem to a Magazine.

Derrick Brown - The Kurosawa Champagne

I think the performance of this poem is very unique. I like the way the poet added music to his poem and the passages in which he sang his poem. It is very extraordinary way of reading one’s poem I guess. So music plays an important role in his performance. But it’s not just the music which makes it so special. It’s also the way he reads the poem and the way he stresses certain words in combination with his gestures. It made me feel his affection to that woman and involves the listeners I guess.

Actually, this poem is about the love of a man to a woman. However, through his language one can hear how desperately he loves her. His feelings to her make him even suffer and let him act in a rather self-destructing way. He totally surrenders himself to her which is emphasized through several passages in this work. Actually, he uses many negatively connotated words such as ‘hate’ or ‘die’, for instance, in the following passage: “You’ve a daily pill case but there’re no pills inside. It holds the ashes of people who died the moment they saw you.”

The way he described his’ woman’s beauty is also great: “The mathematical equivalent of a woman’s beauty is directly relational to the amount or degree that other women hate her. And you dear are hated a lot. You’re boots are soundtracked with adultery...” I like his formular of the beauty of women since I think it makes perfect sense.