Laura Cherry: The Enemies of Poetry

It sounds completely paranoid, doesn’t it? Fearsome foes pursuing poets at every turn!…. but the truth is, on many days I feel that way, and unless I’m up to engaging in hand-to-hand combat, I may very well lose that day’s battle.

I’m sure you know the enemies I mean. Work – any kind of work that pays better than poetry, which is to say, any kind of work. Errands. (Errands are actually the antithesis of all that is good.) Shopping, holidays, the confluence of the two, and the entire month of December. Worry. Facebook. Bills and their relentless stream of in-and-out numbers. The Bad Book of Poetry that makes you forget why you liked poetry in the first place. Too little free time. Too much free time. Children. Worthy causes of all stripes. Cleaning. Looking around and wishing the living room appeared to have been decorated sometime after 1986. Happy dinners with friends over little pink drinks. Early mornings with children after evenings of little pink drinks.

Etc. You know, life. Life is not conducive to poetry. It may provide ample writing material, but it does not naturally conduct its rich beneficence or its catalog of original woes to the pen (or keyboard). You have to fight for it, and sometimes life is already too tiring or trying to muster one more fight.

What, then, are the friends of poetry that will stand between us and this legion of baddies? (Besides the Ruth Lilly estate, I mean – that’s previously accounted for.) When I’m in a mood to feel wronged by the forces ranged against me, where can I turn? This is the question, really, more than what to write about or how to write it – it’s how to cut through the swath of distractions long enough to write in the first place.

Friend 1: The good book of poetry. The one that not only reminds you why you like poetry, it opens up new possibilities for what you think poetry can do. Finding this book is the trick. Consult friends and blogs and book lists and keep your ears open and devote some cash to the pursuit.

Friend 2: Deadlines. Self-imposed deadlines work sometimes. Submission deadlines are even better. NaPoWriMo gives you a daily deadline, if you choose to accept the mission. Best of all are workshop deadlines, preferably for a group of writers you respect and admire and want to impress. Avoiding humiliation is your firm friend. Seek deadlines.

Friend 3: Anything that releases you from the scatterments of daily life into the realm of attention. Meditation does not do this for me, but walks do. Or poetry readings – my writing professor used to say that the pressure of remaining silent for an hour while another writer declaimed his or her best lines was enough to get anyone writing. Conversations with other writers; reading poetry blogs. Biographies of poets are good for both focus and a hit of schadenfreude. Movies, dreams, paintings. Like I do, you secretly know what works for you. Duck out of the fight, find a notebook, sneak off with a friend. Ruth Lilly would approve.