Some years ago I was sitting on the couch in my former apartment with a book of matches in my hand and several more books in front of me on the coffee table. When I felt I had sufficiently focused my attention, I struck a match while listening to it as intently as possible.
Then a second match.
Soon I was saying aloud a certain person's name, trying to precisely time my speaking it with striking a match. I repeated this procedure again and again for almost 20 minutes. Finally, I was convinced the person's name sounded to a good degree like "a match flaring to life".
You see, I had been writing a poem when the comparison came to me, and I wanted to be certain that could accurately be said of her name.
I do that sort of thing a lot -- check and double-check the accuracy or meaningfulness of my words as I write my poems. And I do it despite my conviction it adds nothing -- nothing at all -- to the poetic value or worth of my poems. Instead, I do it because I just don't like writing poetry that I myself cannot understand. That is, poetry that seems meaningless to me.
Yes, it hurts to discard a phrase or sentence that sounds beautiful or 'cool' but is meaningless. It feels a lot like the times I have needed to free up space on my bookshelves by getting rid of books I know I will never read or even use as references. I all but revere books, and even getting rid of the useless ones is painful. But sometimes it's the best thing to do.
I think if you're going to do something -- anything -- then unless there is some harm in it, you're better off sticking to your standards -- the standards that you yourself believe in -- no matter how seemingly ridiculous those standards are. That's how you sleep at night.
“The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark.” ― Thomas Paine
Then a second match.
Soon I was saying aloud a certain person's name, trying to precisely time my speaking it with striking a match. I repeated this procedure again and again for almost 20 minutes. Finally, I was convinced the person's name sounded to a good degree like "a match flaring to life".
You see, I had been writing a poem when the comparison came to me, and I wanted to be certain that could accurately be said of her name.
I do that sort of thing a lot -- check and double-check the accuracy or meaningfulness of my words as I write my poems. And I do it despite my conviction it adds nothing -- nothing at all -- to the poetic value or worth of my poems. Instead, I do it because I just don't like writing poetry that I myself cannot understand. That is, poetry that seems meaningless to me.
Yes, it hurts to discard a phrase or sentence that sounds beautiful or 'cool' but is meaningless. It feels a lot like the times I have needed to free up space on my bookshelves by getting rid of books I know I will never read or even use as references. I all but revere books, and even getting rid of the useless ones is painful. But sometimes it's the best thing to do.
I think if you're going to do something -- anything -- then unless there is some harm in it, you're better off sticking to your standards -- the standards that you yourself believe in -- no matter how seemingly ridiculous those standards are. That's how you sleep at night.
“The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark.” ― Thomas Paine
