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NOW THAT’S A POEM: Where Inspiration Comes From

ByLee Ann
This entry is part 11 of 11 in the series The Creative Process Unmasked

Have you ever wanted to ask an artist, “Where do you get your ideas?” I’m here to help! As many of you know, I’m endlessly fascinated by the creative process and have written quite a bit about it here on the site. Turns out, inspiration is lurking in many surprising places.

Local Beauty

For me, inspiration often lies in the beauty I’ve photographed in my everyday world. Here are some examples of photos I’m currently writing from:

How do I decide which of my hundreds of photos inspire me? When I look at one and think, “now that’s a poem!” Then I’ll start to jot down thoughts about what’s in the picture, what ideas it sparks, what feelings it invokes. The photo is a jumping off point. The resulting poem is rarely a description of what’s in the scene.

Themes and Structures

Another trigger can come from a “call for submission”, where a journal or website announces they are looking for writers to send in new work. Often these calls are for a certain theme to be written about, or certain style of poem to be created. For example, Frontier Poetry recently requested submissions for their “Not in Love Tanka Challenge.” Oh yeah, this is inspiring: to try to stuff such a huge theme into the five-line/31 syllable structure that is the Tanka poem!

I can’t show you that one, as I did submit and can’t publish anywhere else, including here, before hearing back from Frontier Poetry. However, I can show you “White Quill Pen”. This poem was one of three I submitted, answering a call by the League of Canadian Poets. It was selected for Fresh Voices #30. This scene, taken in Canmore, Alberta, inspired the poem. You can see the poem with its photo in my Photo Art Gallery.

Magical Thinking

And yes, sometimes it’s all very “woo-woo” and I’ll wake up with some lines that seem to insist on being written. Recently I got: “Meegwich/thank you, I hope my people were kind.” This led to a poem that is a type of land acknowledgement to the native people of the Niagara Region. My ancestors were some of the very first white settlers there, and the poem includes details from my years of genealogical research.

Your Turn!

So there you go! I hope I’ve answered your question about where inspiration comes from, at least partly. Follow-up questions are most welcome!

Meanwhile, even if you’re not a practicing artist, why not challenge yourself to notice what ignites some excitement, some curiosity, or maybe even an “ah-ha!” moment? You may be surprised by where inspiration comes from. Who knows what may galvanize you… and what that might lead to!

Lee Ann

What Else is New?

Looking for gardening inspiration? Find Seedy Saturday events across Canada in February and March. Shop for low-priced seeds from local sources, talk to local vendors, attend fun and informative workshops. For my Ottawa readers: Look for the Master Gardeners of Ottawa-Carleton’s advice table at the Ottawa event, March 2, 691 Smyth Road, and at the Carp event, March 9, 3790 Carp Road.

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ARTIST AS WITNESS

ByLee Ann
This entry is part 10 of 11 in the series The Creative Process Unmasked

A key role of any artist is as a witness to life. Artists do more than live life. They observe life. They reflect about what they observe and they transform those observations and reflections into art. Think about it: a poem, a song, a dance, a painting – any form of art can be triggered because an artist first witnessed life.

Lucky us! Art in any of its manifestations can provide us with a thoughtful, clear depiction of what life was like in a place and time far different than our own.

I’ve been thinking about this lately because a book of my poetry and photography has been accepted into the Ottawa Archives COVID collection. This collection – of photos, correspondence, artwork and other records – has been created to show future generations what it was really like to live in Ottawa through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Of course I am delighted to think about people 50 or 100 years from now looking through my Poetry Art! (Sample here.) More than that, I find myself grateful for artists. By their very nature, in their role as witness, they create all types of evocative work. We all then benefit from their observations, their reflections and of course, their ability to transform these into art.

Here are two of my favourite examples of artists in their key role as a witness to life:

  • John McRae. In his famous poem, “In Flanders Fields,” he gives us his observations of the battlefield and then transcends this into a rallying cry from the dead.
  • Irene Sankoff and David Hein. Their musical, “Come From Away” depicts Gander, Newfoundland taking in 6700 people diverted by 9/11. The actual hardships are transformed into words, music and dance.

What about you? What artist-as-witness piece(s) of art impress you?

Lee Ann

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ART FROM REAL LIFE

ByLee Ann
This entry is part 9 of 11 in the series The Creative Process Unmasked
Homework: spinach. Artistic inspiration?

I’ve been thinking lately that I have nothing to write about. This winter I’ve been sick. I injured my back from coughing so hard when I was sick. I’ve been taking a horticulture course at U Guelph, and I’ve been writing for other people. In other words, no artistic inspiration in my real life!

Luckily a friend alerted me to an online poetry course given by Governor General Award-winning poet Lorna Crozier (thanks, M2!) And the very first lesson in that course reminded me that real life – in all its pain and all its glory – inspires any artist who takes the time to observe.

Observing is a skill, and it’s a critical part of the creative process. Turns out, I did not have to look beyond what has been happening in my real life to be inspired. We received two prompts in this lesson. One was to write from a line in a poem called “Peaches” by Peter Davison:

a mouthful of language to swallow

What a great line, I wish I had written it! But I did write from it, which is just as great. The second prompt was to write what’s called an “apostrophe” poem. That’s a poem addressed to an animal, an inanimate object, an idea, or a person who is absent. I did not have to look far to find what I wanted to address.

So there you have it. Often real life does provide the source for inspiration. It’s right there if only we look closely.

Winter beauty: a gift of the season! And may be artistic inspiration as well.

Why not try it yourself? Observing, I mean. What do you see/hear/feel when you take the time to observe what is happening in your own real life? You may not arrive at a new poem, but I’m betting you will benefit. May you gain some insight, recognize the gifts of this current life phase, or at the very least, enjoy immersing yourself in the beauty that is unique to the winter season.

Meanwhile, please enjoy the two poems I created directly from my real life. “A Mouthful of Language to Swallow” and “To the Muscles Surrounding my L2 to L5 Vertebrae.”

Lee Ann

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WHEN “I” DOESN’T MEAN “ME”: Lesson #1 From My Latest Poem

ByLee Ann
This entry is part 8 of 11 in the series The Creative Process Unmasked

It’s easy to assume that when a writer uses the first person in a poem or story, the “I” she’s referring to is herself. Not so! Well, sometimes it’s so, but more often than not the writer has made a creative choice, and there are many different reasons to decide to write something in the first person. This decision is a big part of the creative process.

Here’s an example: a poem I recently wrote with a first-person narrator. Click here to read it; I’ll wait while you do that.

waiting patiently while you read

What’s Real and What’s Not

OK, welcome back! Now, a number of people have told me how interested they were to read about my grandmother and the experience I described from childhood. The thing is, I had no such grandmother and no such experience. In fact, the entire back yard scene was conjured up by my imagination during a “free write” session in a poetry workshop. I saw the scene clearly in my mind and wrote it down, up to the point where the young girl is trailing after the tall, muttering old woman. Certain elements – the rooftops, the clothesline – matched my actual grandmother’s back yard. Beyond that, the key elements – the sniffing, the predictions, even the wicker basket – all made up.

My Mimi’s clothesline did not look like this

I actually decided to make this a first-person narrator because first-person is the best way to give readers direct, unfiltered access to what’s going on inside a character’s head. The character herself is telling the story, not a separate narrator once removed. It’s more immediate than if I’d written “she set out to practice”, or “she learned”. Try replacing “I” with “she” when re-reading the poem, and see if you agree.

Time to Marinate

When I wrote the scene, I knew I wanted to expand it into something, but I didn’t know exactly what. So I filed the scene away and didn’t look at it again for over six months. The creative process involves a lot of marinating. I’ve written about this already in this series: draft versions take time to develop into a finished product. They benefit from being set aside for a while. In this case, when I read the scene again with the fresh eyes that six months’ distance gave me, I immediately started to wonder about how this young girl character might respond to her grandmother and this power. Which led me to the second half of the poem, and the decision to use a first-person narrator.

“Rain’s coming,” she’d say.

In the next installment of this series, I’ll write some more about the second half of the poem, as I continue to “unmask” the creative process for you. Meanwhile, remember: beware the temptation to assume that the use of “I” in a story or poem means the writer is writing about herself! It’s a choice she makes as part of the creative process.

Lee Ann

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PERSPECTIVE

ByLee Ann
This entry is part 7 of 11 in the series The Creative Process Unmasked

The creative process has a lot to do with perspective. I was reminded of this a couple of years ago when I went to a painting party. Over a few hours, an artist showed a group of us how to create a simple painting of a sailboat at night. No two pieces of art, even though they represented the same subject, were the same. Each nascent artist brought a specific perspective when creating their painting.

Of course, an artist’s skill level also plays a role in the resulting piece. Do you know the most important skill any artist needs to hone? Observation.

Keen observation: the building block of artistic perspective!

Think about it. Even in the context of the painting party, each person’s ability to observe – the interrelation of the boat’s parts, how parallel lines converging give the illusion of depth and distance – in large part determined the success of the final product.

Observation + Perspective = Art

Poet and author Molly Peacock goes so far as to say that a poet’s skills are “noticing and comparing one thing to another.” She says a poet must become “an expert in observing.” I think this goes for all artists, whether their medium is poetry or dance, painting or song.

What an artist notices and what they think about that is the heart of any piece of artwork. If an artist is very skilled at observing and then expressing from their observations – well, they’ll have endless creative output! Plus, a skilled artist often brings to us new insight via their work.

If you want to read a delightful example of observation and perspective, look for American poet Alicia Suskin Ostriker’s book, The Old Woman, the Tulip and the Dog (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2014). It’s a collection of over 30 different poems, each written from three perspectives: that of an old woman, a tulip, and a dog.

Meanwhile, why not try practicing keen observation of what is in your world? Notice what you notice! Then express it somehow, even in a post-it note that you stick on your monitor. You just might begin to awaken your inner artist!

Until next time, here is my tribute to Ostriker: “Aging from Three Perspectives”.

Lee Ann

CREATIVE SPARKS

ByLee Ann
This entry is part 6 of 11 in the series The Creative Process Unmasked

The creative process is often triggered in surprising ways! Did you know that artists’ inspirations – their “creative sparks” – regularly come from outside their own genre? Here are some examples of what I mean:

  • American dancer and choreographer Martha Graham designed ballets inspired by a wide variety of stimuli. These included modern painting, the American frontier, religious ceremonies of Native Americans, and Greek mythology.
  • In 1975, musical group The Bee Gees’ first big disco hit, “Jive Talkin’” was born of the rhythmic sound of their car wheels rolling along a bridge over Biscayne Bay, Florida.
  • Architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s favourite muse was Mother Nature. His entire body of work focussed on integrating human-made structures into the natural world. He took his inspiration from the surrounding environment and created beautiful, innovative buildings. They not only fit into, but also echoed key elements of their settings.
Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright

Music as Creative Spark

Music is probably as big an influencer of art as Nature. A 1993 study coined “The Mozart Effect” went so far as to say you could improve your creativity by listening to the piano concerti of Mozart. Whether that’s true or not is under debate. Yet maybe a little background Wolfgang couldn’t hurt, right?
A few years ago I had the experience of being quite transported by a jazz performance. Has this ever happened to you? Music takes you to a different place or time – beyond simple memory to a place where Truth is found. Music has the power to do that. As a creative, my genre is words, so in response to my experience I created a poem sparked by that music. To complete my piece of “Poetry Art”, I then took a photograph to enhance the poem.
So I’ll leave you with this personal example of how an artist’s inspiration comes from outside her genre. As always, I’d love to hear what you think!
Here is “Summertime.”
Lee Ann