Jay Carson’s Comments

My process for writing these and pretty much all poems is to get the time. Usually, by then I have several ideas, most often questions or problems that I want to get down into poems. The ideas start from a phrase, or rhythm I heard or that mysterious place inside us. (“Eschatology,” for example, came from one too many requests to take a brief survey after a call to a credit card company. “Buzzz” came from mysteriously feeling myself buzz at a poetry reading.) I too rarely write idea notes, taking solace in emeritus director of the International Poetry Forum Sam Hazo’s suggestion that if they are good enough, the ideas stay in the conscious mind for a few days. Invention has always been the easiest part for me, which incidentally weakened me as a composition teacher. Making those snippets into poems, rewriting, is the hard part. That’s where I spend my time, before and after my regular writing workshop with its supportive but too-honest participants. (“If we don’t tell the truth about the problem poems, you won’t be able to believe us when we compliment you.”) And certainly I am vain enough to enjoy the acceptance and publication. Thanks, FRiGG.

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