Thursday 3 December 2020

Jeffrey Harrison : part five

What do you find most difficult about writing poetry?

The most difficult thing about writing poetry is… not writing poetry—the dry spells when nothing is happening. They can be depressing. This is when some poets turn to writing prompts, but I don’t seem to be able to write from prompts. I did do a lot of that in college when I studied with Kenneth Koch and David Shapiro, and of course I’ve used prompts in my own teaching, so I see their value. I just can’t do them myself at this point, the way I’ve never been able to do “role play” at a job interview. It feels artificial. So, I just have to suffer through the arid periods. It is often reading that eventually gets back to writing.

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