Day 20 of 31 Poems in 31 Days
The Other Kind of Stress
Poets can be a sensitive lot. In a way, that’s what poets are known for. Unfortunately, it can be a poet’s undoing. Writer’s block, in most cases, is simply a lack of confidence. A person gets so wrapped up in negative self talk, that no matter what they put on the page, it never seems good enough. When it reaches the point that the poet can no longer put words on the page at all, it has become a severe problem. Try to recognize when you are being overly self critical. Here are some ways that all people, including poets, sabotage themselves. Please note that I am adapting material from Walt Schafer’s book, Stress Management for Wellness.
Negativising: Focusing only on the negative aspects of a situation. For example, if someone reads your poem and has mostly positive things say, but you focus only on the criticism, you are negativising.
Awfulizing: Focusing too much on a problem or obstacle until you build it up into a disaster. For example, you decide you can’t write today because you can’t find your favorite pen and without that, you won’t produce anything good.
Catastrophizing: This is when you go into a situation expecting the worst. For example, you decide not to submit your poems to a poetry magazine because you “already know they are going to turn you down.”
Ovegeneralizing: This is when you take a single negative event or piece of data and apply it to a much larger situation. For example, if you write a bad poem, you decide that you must have “lost it” and you might as well give up. Plenty of good poems get written right after bad poems.
Minimizing: This is when you downgrade praise or an accomplishment. For example, if you get published by that magazine you thought would never publish you, you decide that it must have been a fluke or they didn’t get very many submissions.
Perfectionism: Setting impossibly high standards for yourself or for a situation. For example, deciding that you have to have the perfect word to finish a line and you can’t move forward until that word comes to you.
There are other ways to sabotage yourself but I think you get the point. Don’t focus on the negative aspects of your writing. Its good to want to improve, but don’t paralyze yourself with unreasonable expectations or poor self image. Just write.
Today’s Poetry Assignment
Write a poem that begins with a negative image or statement and ends with a positive image or statement.
Today’s Featured Poet
Sherman Alexie is a Native American poet, novelist and stand-up comedian. He is a prolific writer who probably doesn’t know the meaning of the words “writer’s block”.
- Review of The Business of FancyDancing and Old Shirts & New Skins
- Sherman Alexie’s Iowa Review Interview
- General Commentary on Sherman Alexie
- Alexie’s Web Site
Books of Poetry
Camping in Lower Scorpion
It was a disaster
The plan
(and I do so love and need one!)
was to find a hotel for night one;
buy provisions for camping, night two
But we were driving
and driving endlessly
through the middle of scenic
NOWHERE
Not a hotel, restaurant, or grocery store
anywhere In sight
which was becoming harder to see
in the growing dark
Campsites were abundant
and abundantly full
I kept reminding him
agitation growing
that we were camping on night two
He kept reminding me
agitation growing
that there was nothing else for hours
and we’d have to make do
I criticized
His (lack of) planning
His map reading skills
even his devotion to me
As if it needed to be said out loud
I declared
“I am not happy!”
Brakes slamming, he turned on me
Spat
“Oh yeah? Well here’s a newsflash for you –
it is not my sole purpose in life to make you happy!”
Petulant child I became
dramatically swept my arms
across our circumstantial landscape
More dramatically responded
“Well, OBVIOUSLY!”
And just like that
we laughed
hard
perhaps even leaning toward hysterical
but still better than welling, wallowing anger
We set up camp
in the last available site
right next to the parking lot
downwind from the outhouse
No fire
Just some Dinty Moore stew
that we shared
luke warm, straight from the can
The sex was amazing that night
As was the hike the next morning
stream wading
caves with petroglyphs
Our accidental discovery
of Lower Scorpion campground
We’ve returned
on purpose
every year since
Funny to recall then
but even better now
since removing the sting