One of my favorite things to tell my students is, The poem is smarter than you. I rarely start writing a poem knowing how it will finish, and even when I think I have a general idea, it rarely turns out to be accurate. Writers often talk about strategies for revision and tips and tricks for how to overcome writer’s block, but I think letting go of what we’re writing—especially in early drafts—and not trying to shape it too much toward our own egos and aesthetic inclinations results in it speaking most powerfully and convincingly through us. I’m a proponent of the poet-as-vessel-for-poems approach rather than the poet-as-creator-of-truth/beauty approach to writing. If something aesthetically striking results from letting my poems wander where they want to wander, this occurs in part because I took the time to listen for it rather than articulate it myself. The other advice I like to give is to read selfishly whenever possible. By that I mean don’t be too hard on yourself if you’re reading the same four or five books over and over again so long as they are helping you generate new writing. It is of course helpful to read as widely as possible (I’d never advocate against that), but it is equally important to find writers you share an aesthetic kinship with. Read them specifically and repetitively so that some of the energy they’ve dialed into finds its way into your writing and, by extension, your imagination.
—J. Scott Brownlee, author of Requiem for Used Ignition Cap (Orison Books, 2015)
Photo credit: Matthew Valentine