Category: Uncategorized
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Jung and creative writing
Podcast: Jung in the World: C. G. Jung & the Modernist Revolution with Roula-Maria Dib Talking about the linkages between Jung, Modernism and creative writing, this quote from Roula-Maria Dib: “We do tend to pay special focus to the symbol because symbols are a language that give creative writing this quality of non-fictiveness, the quality…
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Present tense
Below, a quote from Arthur Sze, his thinking on the qualities of the present tense in his poetry): “ … the present tense of the verb is an essential part of its power. Of course, the present is always becoming the past, so I like to use a present tense where the present is like…
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Some poems will be forgotten
To paraphrase Alice Oswald, as she spoke as Oxford Professor of Poetry, in her December 2019 lecture, some poems will be forgotten and that’s okay. “… [I]t’s my strong belief that the invention of writing has given a little bit too much power to the lastingness of poetry. We tend to assume that the good…
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[stone in the shoe]
From rob mclennan’s 12 or 20 questions interview series. Here’s an excerpt of Tolu Oloruntoba’s response, when asked how a poem begins: “It begins with the stone in the shoe. The stubborn notion. Or the poignant phrase that drops in my mind. I don’t know how my brain draws associations that become the often-arresting realizations…
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On Imagination
A couple more quotes from reading On Imagination. Mary Ruefule writes: “You can colonize a reader the way you can colo-nize a country. The imagination is not a privileged act; everyone engages in it. The imagination allows me to give a credence and an integrity to any existence outside of myself.” And later: “… too…
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February / Snowdrops
Turning the calendar over to February, this month is Black History Month. Writer Wayde Compton is tweeting daily under the hashtag, #BlackHistoryMonthYVR. On Twitter, he writes: “ … I will tweet one fact about the history of people of African descent in the city of Vancouver.” His Twitter here. Also, today is Lunar New Year…
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Musically speaking …
In the practice of writing, there are often rituals or habits that writers fall into (and/or adopt with intention) to assist in the process of creation, inscription, putting words to a page. This is the cursory stage frequently called ‘sketching’ or ‘free writing.’ Listening to music, for me, is one of these important elements of…
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Ruefle on Stein
Excerpt from Mary Ruefle’s essay-chapbook, On Imagination: ‘Now I will speak as an artist. As an artist, I like many mistakes. Not all mistakes, but many of them. A mistake is just another “take” on things.Mishearing or misreading is a joyful mistake for an artist. Someone says, “The door is ajar,” and you hear them…
Michael Edwards 