Does anyone ever feel this?

Today it occurs to me that I haven't written anything new, of any decent quality in well over a month. I've also found myself feeling apathetic with regards to performing. I just don't seem to be engaged by Poetry like I was this time last year. Maybe it's something as simple as having written over 100 poems in the last 6 months, because lately I feel I have nothing to write about.

I imagine that is quite normal. I am driven by my emotions - they often fuel my poetry so if nothing much is happening in my life, my poetry eventually calms down. Maybe you should use this time to recharge your batteries and do other things. Poetry can be so sleep depriving, you do need a rest from it sometimes. My opinion anyway - others may be different.

Hi Martin. today I have been sorting out 60 or so poems from 7 to 10 year olds after working in a junior school today... There are lots of deep blue seas and light blue skies. This has rather frazzled me... Give it a rest and you will unexpectedly find inspiration I am sure. If you are like me and try to force it then the output will end up like the above! Take Isobels advice and make the most of a break I think and don't worry. Win

i go for ages sometimes with nothing....and i feel bad doing old stuff at gigs,,,but its only old to the reader of course ...i also paint and i get the same feeling when putting a painting finished in say 1995 into an open exhibition
if it helps though i find a big lull is usually followed by a change in style or an improvement ..j(thought i saw you last night in new brighton?)

Hi Martin,
we noticed you went early from the Bards last night.
Although you say you haven't written anything of any value in the last month, i think everything we write is of some value.
Sometimes we just need to rinse out the last dregs of creative juices before discovering a new way of expression.
It could be that the slam and the aftermath touched a nerve which is no bad thing if it makes us look at where we want to go from here.
When this happens to me, i ask myself, why did i do that?
Was it for myself or someone else?
Do i have anything to prove and if so, what and to who?
Once you have the answer to your own questions it becomes easier to solve, accept and learn from it, moving on with a clear mind as to what you want and where you want or need to be.

This isn't just for Martin, i think we all go through this kind of experience in some aspects of our lives. Sometimes we need to just go with the flow, others we need to make a move to make the changes happen.

Janet.x

Thanks for the replies, I should say though that I tend not to write 'emotional' stuff. I never really feel drained when or after I write. I can often write anywhere and come out with something half decent. Lately, though this has just not been the case.

With regard to the Slam, dispite the fallout, I enjoyed the evening. I am my own worst critic this is true but a screwed up performance doesn't usually affect me. Now I know where the bottom is I can begin to look for the top!

Finally, the Bards. It was the first event I came to on the Wirral. I enjoyed it for a while but lately something for me has been missing. Which is why I didn't read, well that and the fact I'd had a crappy day and was shattered. The reason I left early was so that I didn't fall asleep during someone's performance...that would be unforgiveable! That said I actually got my pad out and had an idea for a poem, but you know, nothing came. Or at least nothing of any use or even ornament. In fact this morning I took a look at my poetry and the one thing I can say is that over the last six months or so ithas actually gone downhill. If anything my increased presence at events seems to have lessened the quality of my work not improved it....maybe that's just me but I get the feeling that I have nothing to write, or at least nothing of any great value.

Many poems shared in Gigs are written days or hours before the event, as is often proudly proclaimed by the reader. Most of such poems would greatly benefit from more thought. Why not look for the seeds of ideas or verbal gems which must be hidden in some of your prior work, and revise them, tighten them up or expand them. Time has certainly made you more observant, more sensitive to poetical inanities. Rescue the ideas and special vocabulary; shine up their true value and make a new, more dynamic presentation. It's a great learning process too.

Indeed it is true that there are some hidden or maybe even slightly dirty gems among the reams of poems I have written to date. Looking once again at some of my work that has been 'sucessful' outside of poetic circles, i.e. magazines, papers, compilations, it seems that it is those that people relate to that work.

My poem The Ferries for example, went down fanatstically at the Oxton Secret Gardens. Many, many people can relate to the annoying nature of the commentary and the 'Damn song by Gerry!' In fact I was told by one lady that the only thing wrong with it was that it didn't mention how god awful it was to hear the same commentary day in day out, month in month out. When I look at it though it's an off the cuff thing written very quickly and with NO afterthought put into it. I wrote it whilst sitting in the crowded Liverpool Maritime Museum and haven't changed it at all since.

Looking at another 'Dogma', which has had loads of thought put into it, has gone through the process and been put through workshops, is often not as well like by people. Whether it is the subject of extremism, or the matter of fact nature that it uses I'm unsure. That said it too has recieved good feedback from some.

I wonder if it is not just some self imposed rubbish that I am going through. Is it possible that being so harsh a critic of my own work and performance has caused this? Ahh, maybe it doesn't matter hey?

So - now's the time to READ like a maniac - all kinds of poetry from all eras - DIG IN - ENJOY the works of other, well-honoured poets. Read twenty poems a day - slowly, repetitively, discursively (with yourself, if necessary). Maybe this is the time allotted to you to actually STUDY BY OSMOSIS and then become an even better writer. I think active writing is cyclic. If you're a sincere poet there's no such thing as being poetically inactive: you just redirect your interest for a period, and more consciously share the insights of other poets.Moreover, in my opinion constant introversion is a mind killer.

I'm going to come across here as a really annoying person, but I have always found time to read. Mainly because I've always said that you don't need to find time to read, most people have around 10 hours of 'dead time' in their weekly routines that can be used for reading. Of course this includes times when you might have to multitask a bit but it is possible. In fact I can lay my hands on three fantastic books I'm reading at the moment. When it comes to poetry, or rather reading poetry, well of the twenty collections I see when I glance upward to my shelf of favourites I've read thoroughly many times.

I appreciate the attempts though to help me narrow down what exactly might be causing this writing problem. Although I say it's a problem ironically I've always got three projects on the go at any one time, which means if I get 'writer's block' with one I move on to another and my output of 'useable' material on those has increased 5 fold. (I say 'useable' because I have a fairly thorough editing routine and a ruthless ability to cut things that don't work.)

Au contraire, Pierre ...you get more interesting as the discussion evolves. A hundred poems in six months! I couldn't do it; not now or ever! It must be similar to emptying a bucket instead of running a slow tap. Is the pail beginning to fill up again?

I must say that after what seems like ages of not writing poetry, today I sat atop Bidston Hill in a little spot that few people know of and took out my notepad. The resulting poem was just awful, but at least I wrote one hey?

Good on ya Martin - you are re-igniting.... I very often write awful poetry but it keeps me amused. Perhaps we could set up a dead awful poets society.