Entry 1127 — True Poetic Experimentation
I’m almost giddy about the following after working for about an hour on it:
I’m giddy about it not because I think it’s any good (I sincerely have no opinion of it yet), but because I took what I had yesterday an truly experimented with it. That is, I just tried out little design ideas as they hit without consideration of what thy’ do to the work as a whole. For instance, I thought, “I’ll try a lighter blue in this area an see what happens,” rather than “If I made the blue here lighter, would it help produce the effect I want, which is to express the joy of escape reading?”
Not that I didn’t abruptly notice how some change might help me get the poem headed where I thought I wanted it to go. I am also pretty sure my unconscious oversaw everything. The big surprise for me was that the Very Clumsy, Wrong dividend and sub-dividend product I had ended seeming possibly right!
One other nice thing: I’m seeing new experiments to try with it. None brilliant but all seeming worth a try. I fear the poem’s experimental feel is fading, though: most of my new thoughts have to do with further exploitation of what’s there as opposed to just trying any old thing.
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