Monday Poetry Train #36

Creating Poetry
by John Drury

I just checked this out of the library again for the first time in over two years. I first discovered it on the Phoenix branch library shelves in 2002 or 2003. I was excited about it then but so must have been many others in our area because I was seldom able to renew it at the end of three weeks.

Since it was a book that belonged to the Phoenix branch I never bothered to order it as I just watched for it to show up on the shelf again. I hadn't spotted it for a long while and wondered if it had gotten lost or something. I finally saw it again the day of the Phoenix branch library grand opening for the new building and I realized it had probably gone into storage when we moved out of the old building into the tiny temp building. There were probably other copies in the system which was one of the criteria the librarian used to decide which books stayed and which ones went on ice.

I remember seeing it on the shelf the last day the old building was open and chose not to check it out because I already had such a large haul that day--the day the Phoenix branch closed for two weeks for the move into a temporary building. (And if I thought that was cause for panic, what do you think it was like when I learned the entire county system was closing indefinitely for lack of funding and no stockpiling allowed? Can you believe that was a year ago the clock was ticking down on me?)

For a look at what excites me, here is a glimpse at the table of contents. It is inspiration, induction, and education for the would be poet. I'm hoping it will also be stimulation of new poems to post here as it is chock full of exercises that have passed muster for others. See, poem writing kinda snuck up on me. I never planned on writing poems. The ones I've written just sorta happened to me like waking up or blushing. Now I'm hoping to see if I can learn to make poems happen on purpose like making the bed or brushing my teeth.

I had just ordered a bunch of books on poetry writing and poetry appreciation about the time I learned the libraries were closing indefinitely as I had planned to make 2007 the year that I would make a formal study of poetry writing and reading. I put that project on hold in favor of trying to wrap up several more already in process. Now I'm returning to it.

If you are interested in more of the saga of the Southern Oregon Library Closures click on the label below. It was a local story that made national news and I was even interviewed by a SF Chronicle reporter.

There is nothing like temporarily loosing something you love and depend on to make you really appreciate it.