I almost always use a black rollerball pen--ultra fine tip--on several sheets of unlined white paper clipped on a clipboard.

Then my process is pretty set. I start by establishing in my mind what theme I want to write about, then penning huge numbers of images and ideas related to it along the right hand side of the second page. Sometime Ill draw a picture or two. I then pick out the best of that mess and look for common threads among them, to see how my ideas about my theme are interconnected and what I really feel. (Im often surprised at what I find!)

Then I go work on a sculpture for an hour or so, brewing the ideas in my mind, letting my emotions drift around them, figuring out how they make me feel. Based on that, I figure out what message I want to say about my theme.
Then I go back and write my poem in first draft form on the top sheet, trying to get down the basic stanzas and the dramatic flow. Ill flip to the second sheet if I need concrete inspiration.

Then I leave it for at least an hour, more often a day. When I come back to it, I read it to see what hits me as really good and what seems pedestrian. And then I edit. Harshly. I remove anything that doesnt make the poem better. If I like a phrase too much to delete but it doesnt make it better, Ill toss it in my "to re-use later" file. Ill re-edit it 5 or 6 times before I consider it out of draft stage. I abandon about 2 out of 3 pieces as non-working, and break them up for images for later pieces. If the theme was particularly emotional for me, Ill start again fresh in a few days.

05/31/2003

Posted on 05/31/2003
Copyright © 2024 Allan Haslinds