Is it better
to write one poem
each day
for 365 days,
or to spend
365 days
writing
one poem?
poem- musing May 23, 2014
Is it better
to write one poem
each day
for 365 days,
or to spend
365 days
writing
one poem?
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Shawn L. Bird 
Depends on the length of the poem 😉
Ah!
🙂
One poem each day 😉
Duly noted
Life is just
a long poem of sorts
it is partly up to us
to arrange the lots
and decide
how many
how long
how sad
or glad
stanzas we write
😉
Very true.
Or each live is a verse novel
made from
a poem each day.
Marcus – I love this!!!
Marcus Antoninus? Really?
“Friends! Romans! Countrymen!” Marcus?
Cool.
Not really! It’s my pseudonym, chosen in honor of my admired Marcus Aurelius (Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus), the last of the wise emperors and Stoic philosopher. However, I do have roman blood, from Campania and Spain, and a vague physical resemblance to the actual Marcus Aurelius 😉
🙂 An honourable heritage.
Just like everyone’s else!
Thanks, 😉
I always told my mother that quality takes a little extra time
yes, there’s that. But there’s also obsession and over-kill.
Excellent point!
I’ll let you know in two years.
[…] Inspired by and for https://shawnbird.com/2014/05/23/poem-musing/ […]
good question
Indeed. Your thoughts?
It would have to be daily for me because I write mostly short poetry.
Short is good.
As I say in a poem somewhere in this blog (and have been telling my students for years) “Brevity is an art!”
Who says we can’t have the cake and eat it to? Working on new pieces feels like a refreshing breakfast. Revising old work, though…that’s the substantial meal.
Revision as a meal. Not an image I’ve ever considered before.
Only in that it can provide the fuller substance that a quick write my lack
Yes. Possibly.
one poem a day
That’s very definitive. 😉 Why?
well i say it depends on the person and what their style is – and in your case – you whip out the one per day in such a great way – but other people may want to write one a year – but because it is such an art – well there really is no one size fits all – now is there?
volume vs quality?
oh I don’t know… but a different post that I read in the last 24 hours pushed some poetry buttons for me (it pissed me off actually) and so then reading this musing poem, (which we could also call 1 vs 365)
– well it fit right into all my thoughts that were stirred up from the other blog I was at…..
Anyhow, I also have to share that when I was talking (venting) to my husband about the post that fired me up – because I was sharing about how poetry is an art and all that – well I mentioned you dear Shawn – and do you know why?
because you are one of my all-time favorite poets. I also think it is cool that you have ART HAIR – ha! And even though I do not get to your blog every day – and sometimes stay away for weeks – well your daily poems are pure gems – and to me – I feel like what you do represents what poetry is all about (IMHO) – It is the artistic expression of the person.
And when you write – you are not trying to intellectually impress and you are not trying who knows what – instead, we get this natural presentation of words showing what is on your mind at the time. Sometimes the words make a shape (cannot recall the name for that) – topics are varied, depth meter changes, etc. – but all are the expression of “you” – the artist – and the originality that flows through your artistic working or words – well it is quite refreshing. I love what you do here and for you…
well the poem a day is the way to go – because for you – they naturally – and easily flow!
Ahhh! That’s so nice of you to say! Thank you very much for those kind words!
Too bad you weren’t a powerful, poetry publishing house, clamouring to offer a 6 figure advance on a poetry anthology. 😉 Do you know one to recommend me to, by any chance?
Thanks again. I appreciate the compliment.
well I don;t know of any right now – but if any connections ever come my way – I will be in touch right away – lol – in the meantime, keep doing what you do – not just here – but touching the lives of all those kids you teach – another way your essence moves forward as well – and okay, enough from moi! 🙂 have a nice weekend.
Depends on how skert I am! :-0
Ah… interesting.
Each day is actually the same poem, at least for me, since they are all autobiographical. Every day! Anything else is OCD and I have enough trouble with that little quirk 🙂
lol
Maybe both rather than either or. It’s an interesting thought- one line a day for 365… Wild concept. Would there be one constant theme, a random collection of thoughts???
I was thinking more like you spit out the whole poem on Jan 1st, and spend the next 364 day refining it.
Wow. Fun.
Thanks
That is true if you don’t hit any writer’s block lol 🙂
lol
🙂
i am not certain – one could say it is – “Rome was not built in a day” – maybe the poem is the poet’s Sistine Chapel? 🙂
Ah, good point!
depends on your sanity. If you can be sane only writing one poem and working on it every day, then go ahead. And if you only have one grand idea. But I think the other little ideas would push against my brain too hard and want my attention too much to do that. So I go for the one poem per day.
So much to notice!
Def better to write a poem each day but if you must spend a year writing one poem…it better be damn good!
Yes!
Very nice! Yes! No answers to those questions…except maybe the poems themselves. No answer to our life questions, except for who we are right at the end. And the end begs another question, which is answered in the space between life and death…and in dying, perhaps a new question in born in the great beyond.
Thanks
Perhaps the first 364 could be drafts for the final one. Assuming that by then you’ll know what you’ll want to write.
lol
Do one, then do the other, and devise a formula for your own creating based on the results. Then test the formula and share.
I have no intention of doing one poem for a year. I have friends doing MFAs who do it, and it seems kind of pathetic to me. Mind you, the graduates of those programs win the big national awards. Not sure if it’s because of intrinsic worth of a poem that receives so much analysis, or if it’s because the judges of the national competitions come out of these programs, and the style is what they teach…
My rhetorical question was more about that pondering.
Well, everyday we live is a poem of sorts. So I guess we spend 365 days writing the same poem – our life. I always look at things strangely but that’s just me. I have a friend who takes a picture of the same place, every day. every day a little different.
As you’ll see in the comments, this is not such a unique thought! 😉
I like the photo idea.
It is interesting. Every day, view of Fuji. But rain, snow, fog, lots of cars, no cars, storms converging on the mountain, different bend of the road…incredible, actually.
That would be very cool, especially since Fuji is such an iconic image.
sometimes the image is as he drives away from, in his side car mirror. he never tires of photographing, I never tire of seeing. Years ago, I made the climb.
You are lucky.
I was blessed. Fuji has been special to me since I was a child and first beheld it’s image as the center point in Hokusai’s Great Wave. Whether in a centuries old woodcut or a recent cell phone photo of its image in a sideview car mirror, Fuji is a presence deeply felt and carried within one forever.
I’d have to say “one in continuation”, that could be one poem a day or one in a year! I usually let my mind bleed of thoughts till it runs out of juices. Not sure how one can retain the same mind frame while penning down a poem for a year!!
I’m not sure it’s important that it’s the same mind frame. In fact, I suspect having a different mind set each day brings strength to the poem.
ok that’s a new perspective for me 🙂 Perhaps personal nature of mine compels me to write a poem in one sitting,let me try building on it for a couple of days!
I may publish a poem, but that doesn’t mean it’s finished. I will frequently make some adjustments months or even years later.
Yep, that makes sense. In fact, I never had a habit of compiling my poems since I wrote them in different places and hence I would lose them somehow. But now since I keep them safe in a place, I do re-read them and more often than not, there are always ways to better them.
Ah yes. I look at the published ones (in the books) and think “Mehh. What did I like about this?” lol
A prompt to fire your imagination, each and every day for a year!
Isn’t life enough prompt? 😉
Poems complete themselves , now it depends it will take day or days.
or years, or decades.
🙂 sometimes in a sec and yes sometimes writers/poets wander in the search of right words.