Today we are going to talk about poetry and lack of inspiration. When the muse has decided you and she need some time away from each other the only thing a good poet can do is try to woo her back. She is after all, the love of your life. But how do you woo a literary goddess. Why with words of course.

Before I began to write prose, I wrote poetry. I also wrote lyrics. The difference between the two is mostly semantic, I believe as most good songs can be read out loud sans music and would still be considered great. Bob Dylan’s “My Back Pages” comes to mind:

Half wracked prejudice leaped forth

“Rip down all hate,” I screamed

Lies that life was black and white

Spoke from my skull I dreamed.

Romantic facts of musketeers

Foundationed deep somehow

 

Ah, but I was so much older then

I’m younger than that now.

That is a poem verse. There is no doubt, and though the music is very catchy, the words completely stand on their own.

So, how do we get the muse back? We give her the right words. There is an exercise I learned from one of my favorite bands. I have heard it called word chaining, and that sounds good to me. The progressive rock band Yes has a song called “Siberian Khatru.” Now, a complete blog could be devoted to the way Jon Anderson (the lead singer and lyricist) writes. He really just paints word pictures. However, in this song, there are the following background lyrics:

Outboard, river

Bluetail, tailfly

Luther in time

Suntower asking

Cover, lover

June cast, moon fast

As one changes

Heart gold, leaver

Soul mark, mover

Christian, changer

Called out, saviour

Moon gate, climber

Turn round, glider

 

This is both word chaining (blue tail, tail fly) and word association (outboard, river). When you word chain, you pick two words, let’s say “Tail” and “Wind,” to start with, and then you use the last word to make a new phrase and just go for as long as you can. For example,

            Tail wind, wind chime, chime music, music box, box top, top gun, gun shot, shot gun, gun drawn, drawn out, out back, back out, out sold, sold out, out thought, thought police.

You get the idea. When approaching this type of exercise, you should be going for the first thing that comes to mind. It is sort of like word association except with a limitation. For the example, I kept the phrases mostly generic and common. You don’t have to have the phrases make sense. You could do a total word association and just choose the first word that comes to mind, then chain it.

            Blue water, water sky, sky looking, looking glass, glass sunset, sunset pennies.

There are no rules. Just get some word roses for your love. She’ll come around.

 

I wasn’t thinking of anything in particular when chose “Tail wind” because I had just read that in a book before I began writing. However, even though the beginning links were random, there are some rhythms and ideas happening here. If I were to pursue this chain and try to make a poem, I might form it first like this:

            Tail wind, wind chime, chime music, music box

Box top, top gun, gun shot, shot gun

Gun drawn, drawn out, out back, back out

Out sold, sold out, out thought, thought police

 

I actually sort of like that. The rhythms here are strong and tight. The phrases are almost all trochees (Stressed/unstressed: TAIL wind, WIND chime) or dactyls (Stressed/unstressed/unstressed: MU/sic/box) except for the last phrase, which is an anapest (unstressed/unstressed/Stressed: thought/po/LICE). I think it is jarring and breaks the rhythm because every other line ends on a trochee and the three-syllable phrase stands out. So, what if you replaced “thought police” with “thought crime?” That makes the rhythm work perfectly. I may actually steal this from myself.

 

In any case, I think I would be happy with that if I had no idea what poem to write and I needed it done in a day. I also would like to point out that there really are no rules here. You can throw away half the phrases, you can add words in between, whatever. This is just a way to catch the muse’s attention. You are whispering, hey my love, “tail wind, wind chime,” and hoping she will be like, “damn, I have to give that poet some.”