Another life

Would I have been a writer in another life? I just got this realization since whenever I am free to imagine I tend to write feverishly, completely indifferent to the surroundings. Otherwise, I can never find a pen, let alone lift one. If it was the other way around, that writing let my imagination and happiness flow, I would perhaps have written more frequently. But since its not, I cant get myself to write. Along with other things, my inclination to write also seems to suffer from the banalities of daily existence.But the moment I get even a small escape from the daily grind, my freedom looks for self expression which gushes out in the form of writing. Given a choice I might have sung, but the govt informed me that sparrows are an endangered species.
All of us are attracted to some form of self expression. Is that what we really want to do?Say if there was a law tomorrow which frees everyone in the world from their daily routine and allows them to express themselves in their preferred way and then perpetuates that as their profession, would the world have been a better place? Social welfare would certainly go up, since the sum total of individual utilities is certain to be greater than before.
Anyways, that seems to be an entirely theoretical idea. But I have decided to go ahead and write anyways. Maybe there is a reverse causality hidden somewhere, who knows

Adulthood and Imagination

Adulthood seems to be doomed to act. More adult I seem to get more I spend my time doing things or getting them done. Actually this could be the reason young people have all the good ideas. Because adults hardly think. They are too busy doing things. I dont mean adults do things without thinking. They do, but most of it is a strange constrained kind of thinking. What can i get out of this situation, how do i plan for tomorrow, what can go wrong. That is hardly thinking. Worse, it is thinking without imagination bolstered with strict risk aversion on each side. And if you reflect on it, most of the adults actually yearn to go back to their imaginations. Because one who has thought imaginatively know that there is rarely a better thing in this world. That is why adults yearn to retire. That is why they also look forward to taking a vacation or take up a hobby. Retirement brings that bliss and back to ones imaginations. But cant we have a life full of imagination, one where working adults at the peak of their game can also imagine and not always flex their muscles to keep the world going? I wish.

Story makes a poem weak

Which is odd. Because afterall isnt all writing about telling a story? Why should poetry be an exception..

Maybe you are a performance poetry aficionado. There is performance poetry nowadays. But most of the emphasis there is on performance. Although Sarah Kay's love letter is a gem. She seems to be truely in love when she recites that poem. Its a treat just to watch her read out that poem. That aside, Taylor Mali. is an amazing performer. And no mention of performance poetry can ever be over without mentioning Galway Kinnel's Bear. It is "". Iam refraining from using any specific adjective since amazing, fantastic, all have been diluted through over use and when something truly fantastic like Bear comes along you are left with an empty vocabulary. Damn our pc age. Ill call it enchanting. That is still not that frequently used is it?

But still performance poetry is not strictly mainstream poetry. If you read good quality mainstream poetry, one thing is certain. There is sort of a light and shade, magic forest kind of feeling over there. and you are continually filling in the shades with the light of your own imagination.  The poetry becomes personal.

Logically then, if I write a whole story or take a detailed police record and rub off in places asking my imagination to fill in, it will be poetry. To be a poet then all one needs is a book of records and an erasure.
You might have noticed, there is something wrong about the above argument.

Poetry has another dimension, as does all great art. It is craft. The way a poet constructs her sentences, there lies half the magic.So, a great poem is a well crafted structure with lots of imaginative gaps. Otherwise, a great novel would have been a great poem as well.

If you have a complete story and great craft, you have a great novel. What is missing? Nothing. Infact there is too much of it. Imagination. In constructing the whole story the author has crafted out his entire imagination which you, the reader must then internalise. You can be inspired by it and match it to your experience but you cant plug in your own. And that is where a great novel is different from a great poem. In a great poem, you are essentially working with the poet in building the story for your individual self. Too much story would spoil that effect which is core to the very definition of a poem.

That is my argument on what differentiates a poem from other works of literature. Later I might talk a little about craft as well. How much of craft is about details and going down to the basics deep within the big picture. But later.