Happiness and Heartbreak in Poetry: A Writing Practice for Creative Souls
Daily Nourishment Read Time: 30 seconds
Pause/Prompt/Practice Time: 15 minutes
“Poetry became a private place that I was hugely drawn to, where I could let my daydreams—and my pain—come in completely disguised. I knew from the moment I started writing that I never wanted to be writing about my life. That wasn’t the inclination. I was always trying to create another world.”
- James Tate
Pause.
Do a few rounds of a breath prayer/meditation using a word during the inhale that represents something you want to receive (peace, rest, freedom, etc.) and a word during the exhale that represents something you want to let go of (anxiety, busyness, oppression, etc.).
Then take a few minutes to look at the art below.
Max Liebermann, Dutch Village Scene with Hanging Laundry, 1890, harvardartmuseums.org
Prompt.
Read “At the Clothesline” by James Tate.
Then read it again.
Practice.
Set a timer for 10 minutes and journal or take notes in response to the poem and art above and the questions below.
—What feelings does the poem stir in you?
—What images, ideas, objects, or art make you happy and break your heart?
—Write about laundry. The good, the bad, the not-so-bad.
If you like, use what you wrote to begin a new poem, story, essay, or letter to a friend.
Want More?
Here’s an excerpt from The Paris Review:
INTERVIEWER
So for you tragedy and comedy are not separate?
TATE
No, not at all. They’re in the same theater, on the same stage. That’s true of the best poems. You can’t tell where they are going to go. One can start with tragedy and end with comedy, or the other way around.
INTERVIEWER
There is such a strong belief that tragedy is a higher form, that comedy is a low, temporary distraction, and that great literature must be solemn. What is the subversive quality in humor that everyone is worried about?
TATE
I don’t know. Most people don’t have a sense of humor in the first place. So if they find themselves laughing at the end of an experience, they are almost distrustful of themselves—like, what happened to me? Today, for instance, on the tragedy side we could easily be talking about the hideous effect of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, or we could be talking about the Iraq war. But we can go out tonight and hear a great jazz band. We could spend a night with friends, laughing and drinking and toasting and saying how wonderful life is. Simultaneously, we all know that we’re enshrouded in tragedy, lies, and all kinds of evil. Torture, for God’s sake! And heaps of evil beyond what we can contemplate, and yet life is wonderful for those of us who haven’t been directly affected. So we walk around balancing the two all the time. I, for one, am not giving in. I am not going to walk around in tears all day long. I still want to have a good day if I can.
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Flourish Anyway with Rhythms, Rituals, & Retreats
Today’s Daily Nourishment was provided by Charlotte Donlon.See more from Charlotte at Flourish Anyway®.