A bit about my poetry process
Do poets do research?
Dear Daydreamers,
A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I was looking to publish my Science Fiction Haiku book this summer. This would be the third book in my Twisted Haiku series, joining Pirate Haiku and Horror Haiku.
I’ve had a partial draft for 18 months. My progress was halted by the pandemic and the changes happening in my life at the time.
Once I seriously returned to work on the book earlier this summer, it became obvious that the project wanted to be something else. It’s no longer going to be Science Fiction Haiku. Instead, it’s going to be about time and time travel. It’s still science-fiction related, but I’m more interested in going deeper into one subject instead of a wider look at an entire genre.
Once I made this mental shift, the work went much faster.
I want each Twisted Haiku book to be at least 100 pages long. I want readers to feel like they are getting a lot of value for their hard-earned money. Unlike most poetry collections, I put about six haiku on each page.
I also want my books to say something—to be about something. I may be the only person who ever gets the messages I’m broadcasting—like the researcher pinging the cosmos looking for intelligent life outside of our pale blue dot—but it soothes me to know that the messages are out there.
This book is going to be a little different from the earlier books in the series. I’m including a lot more non-haiku than I usually do. I’m also adding several black and white haiku comics instead of the stock line drawings I’ve used in the past.
I write everywhere. I write on my phone and my computer. But, when it comes to poetry, I often make the most progress by writing the poems by hand in a notebook.
Here’s a recent session:
I write the first drafts of everything fast and dirty. I don’t edit my prose as I write, but I often scratch out a few lines of poetry when I struggle to get the right rhythm or syllable count.
I write as many poems as possible before selecting the best ones for publication. I also spend a lot of time deciding the best order for the poems to appear in the collection.
As a poet, I don’t do a lot of structured research. Living life is how I do research. But when working on a themed collection, I do spend time learning more about the genre or topic.
These are all books I’ve read before, and I pulled them off my shelf to give me some inspiration as I steer this project towards completion.
With my time travel haiku project, I’m not trying to present scientifically accurate versions of events as much as I’m conveying feelings and emotional truths. But often, science is weirder than anything I could make up—and using things like quantum theory helps my work to resonate more with readers.
I try to make each haiku a mini-story. My haiku break most of the traditional haiku rules, but what’s the point of being a poet if you’re not going to break some rules?
Creative Challenge:
Can you make a piece of art about your artistic process? In our content-driven world, providing your peers and fans a look at your process often helps create deeper relationships between them and your work.
Be the poetry you want to see in the world!
Cheers,
Jason
Creating art about creating art is a good challenge for me, Jason! I journal daily in longhand, various colored ink, pencil, words and sketches. In the wake of my dad’s passing, has been literally “scrappy” lately, and I found solace in sticky notes.
So...I took all the sticky notes from the past month, fashioned them in a giant square—a writer’s quilt, perhaps—on my desk, and then snatched various words and phrases from each and created a “found” poem. All this inspired from your post.
The process of “research “ for creative work is basically Consuming everything in my path… But in a screening sort of way. For instance, I’m avoiding politics like the plague!