Sunday, 9 September 2012

Slammed is Awesome. So is Point of Reatreat. I'll love you forever, Colleen Hoover.

Hey, only one day has passed and I'm almost through halfway of Point of Retreat. 
One of the best things about Slammed is poetry. So is it in Point of Retreat. 
I'm gonna share with you one of my favourites. This poem wasn't written by either Will or Lake. It was by an absolute stranger who was quite a frequent visitor to the poetry-slamming club. Here it goes:

Write Poorly
by Edmund Davis-Quinn (in Point of Retreat by Colleen Hoover)

Write poorly
Suck
Write Awful
Terribly
Frightfully

Don't care
Turn off the inner editor
Let yourself write
Let it flow
Let yourself fail

Do something crazy
Write fifty thousand words in the month of November.
I did it.
It was fun, it was insane, it was one thousand six hundred and sixty seven words a day.
It was possible.

But, you have to turn off your inner critic.

Off completely.
Just write.
Quickly.
In Bursts.

With joy.
If you can't write, run away for a few.
Come back.
Write again.

Writing is like anything else.
You won't get good at it
immediately.
It's a craft you have to keep getting better.
You don't get to Julliard, unless
you practice.
If you want to get to Carnegie Hall,
practice, practice, practice.
...or give them a lot of money.

Like anything else it takes ten thousand hours to get to mastery.
Just like Malcolm Gladwell says.

So write.
Fail.
Get your thoughts down.
Let it rest.
Let it marinate.
Then edit.
But don't edit as you type,
that just slows the brain down.
Find a daily practice,
for me it's blogging everyday.
And it's fun.

The more you write, the easier it gets.
The more it is a flow, the less a worry.
It's not for school, it's not for a grade,
it's just to get your thoughts out there.

You know they want to come out.
So keep at it. Make it a practice.
And write poorly, write awfully,
write with abandon and it may end up being
really
really
good.


 What do you think? Great, eh? To me, yes, it's the best. Just exactly what I need now.
I'm not one who possesses a poetic nature. Poems are always too hard for me to comprehend. 
But it's not the case in Slammed and Point of Retreat. The poems...I don't need to tear my head apart or claw at my hairs or furrow my brows so hard I'm gonna get wrinkles all over my forehead to get the meanings hidden behind the words; I just...need to...feel them. They come straight to my heart, like melody, so musical, so beautiful, so warm. I love Colleen Hoover's poems. I wish she would write a book of poems one day. I will practically do anything to have it. Kill me if I don't.

1 comment:

  1. This is fucking awesome! Here is a list of all my poems. I am publishing my first chapbook today. Let me know what you like. Feedback to edquinn@gmail.com.

    Print what you like. Let it inspire you. Write! Write! Write!

    Do something crazy like write every day.
    Something mad.
    Something insane.
    Something awesome.

    You will love it.
    You. Will. Love. It.

    Trust me.

    A bad day's post can be fuck this day.

    But, you know what you write and it counts.

    And you can come up with some haiku sea poems like the ones I wrote this afternoon that I am debuting on this post. Seriously, going to be part of a future origami poem book called Fire/Air/Earth/Water. All about the sacred art of creating images in few words. Putting it here and then transferring to ed2dq.com.

    Here are the poems I wrote in sacred ocean and dog today (you have the first publishing) (4/11/13 around 3-4pm)

    Ocean:

    Foster field
    Steals the
    seagulls
    scavengers

    Watching the dogs
    Higgins Beach
    Run, play
    cover food
    FOOD FOOD!

    Cooling
    cooling
    waves
    Gulf of Maine
    Cooling
    Cooling
    Breathe

    Performance piece : The Ocean .. A water breath meditation. Every in and out should be slower and the ins and outs should look like a tree (can't keep my book formatting due to comment setup).

    to
    the ocean
    a prayer
    in and out
    in and out
    water breath
    in and out
    in and out
    in and out
    in and out
    in

    It's the exact opposite speed of slam. I love both the fire of creativity, the air of release, the grounding of earth, and the cold water of ice. All are glorious. All are beautiful.

    Thank you so much for saying these kind words.
    I love you.
    Blessed Be.
    Peace.

    Edmund Charles Davis-Quinn
    Westbrook, ME

    p.s. Seriously I really needed this right now. Beautiful. I will give you every chapbook I ever make for the rest of my life. You have no idea how important this is to me.

    My father Henry Edmund Davis died after a bad 6 months and I feel his artistic energy inside of me. It's ready to be a cheerleader, consult and businessman (MBA Strategy Management Peter F. Drucker School of Management Claremont, CA '2001).

    I had a decade being unsure of my MBA and working on my art but I know my mission in life now. To broadcast that performance poetry is the greatest artform in America, and there is no time better on this Earth to be an artist.

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