"I swore off drinking and tried to watch my diet, and in just two weeks I lost 14 days".... (a semi-famous drinking joke I stole).
I've gone weeks now without a drop of alcohol, and my poetry, whatever there was of it, has been all but vanquished by pointless sobriety and stultifying reality.
Anyone else get this?
Swearing off alcohol....
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Doreen Peri
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Zlatko Waterman
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Dear mnaz:
I think there has to be something to learn from the fact that Sherwood Anderson, Ernest Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald, Raymond Chandler, William Faulkner, Dorothy Parker, Louise Bogan and Elizabeth Bishop were all pretty enthusiastic drinkers.
Hart Crane was often a drunken madman, not to leave out a magnificent poet with "alternative" sexual proclivities.
And, of course, Truman Capote, known to drink a bit.
Particularly if, like me, you need to "disconnect" from the responsible world and "dream the dream" in order to write it down in the form of poetry or fiction, drinking can help. Some folks seem to be able to smoke MJ and get the same effect. I have never been one to substitute cannabis for getting "tight" and fetching a fine hangover in the process. Alcohol is fully legal and fully dangerous.
Whether or not to use it as an aid to composition is a curious question, and tricky to answer.
I, personally, have sometimes found alcohol an aid to writing poetry. Since I do a lot of rewriting, I get some of the "vision" in the alcoholic haze ( when alcohol aids me; it doesn't every time) and then work it up into a poem later when I sober up.
Alcohol is a disaster for writing prose, speaking personally. I suppose, like Raymond Chandler, one could drink and then write a stream of ideas and scenes down on half-sheets of yellow legal paper and then connect them and groom the whole thing later. Though I don't believe for one minute that Chandler could have manufactured all his wonderful metaphors and similes while he was fully souzled.
William Styron wrote an interesting little book about quitting drinking cold turkey after decades of whiskey tippling, "Darkness Visible." It's interesting that this book is often touted as a "memoir of a serious depression, almost suicidal", and that it certainly is. But Styron claimed that alcohol was an "invaluable senior partner to (my) intellect . . .", and his depression co-incides with giving up drinking.
(link to Styron's book)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... ce&s=books
I found Styron's book interesting, and while it is ordinarily called "pitiless" in its self-analysis, a bit self-indulgent throughout in patches.
But look at me. I quit drinking and now have only the occasional libation.
I would have to testify that, again personally, lack of alcohol alters my methods of composition. Prose, which I could never hope to write coherently while drunk, has improved, nay, has not only improved but supplanted my poems. That probably means that I've matured slightly as a writer, however, in a technical sense. I can string words together better; I can be more merciless in my revisions.
Whether what I write " creatively" is better or not, I can't say.
I hope these comments help or at least don't hinder.
Zlatko
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abcrystcats
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"pointless sobriety "
An interesting observation. I guess it's pointless depending on your circumstances.
What results did you expect from abstaining?
If you hope to die soon and anesthetize the discomfort of living in a crappy world while doing so, I highly recommend drinking. I'm being serious, here, not necessarily sarcastic. The only problem with this is that death-by-drinking tends to be extremely painful and horrible.
Speaking for me personally, hangovers get old after a while. There's only so much you can do while under the influence of one, and that little is done with great effort.
Then, alcohol kills your brain cells. I know, because I've lost a few this way. You may be a great poet now, but how great will you be in ten years after a steady diet of gin martinis?
Thankfully, my periods of inebriation of are finally tapering off after a long period where I never wanted to be sober unless I had to be. I used to come home from work and get smashed about 4/5 times a week. Now, the process has reversed itself and I go several days without drinking, then have perhaps one or two when I do. Trying to quit never worked well for me, although I admit that it at least gave my exhausted liver a break.
This may be an irrelevant contribution, though, because I don't write poetry drunk or sober. I do write prose, and I admit that I find it difficult to hit the keys (let alone compose anything) when drunk!
An interesting observation. I guess it's pointless depending on your circumstances.
What results did you expect from abstaining?
If you hope to die soon and anesthetize the discomfort of living in a crappy world while doing so, I highly recommend drinking. I'm being serious, here, not necessarily sarcastic. The only problem with this is that death-by-drinking tends to be extremely painful and horrible.
Speaking for me personally, hangovers get old after a while. There's only so much you can do while under the influence of one, and that little is done with great effort.
Then, alcohol kills your brain cells. I know, because I've lost a few this way. You may be a great poet now, but how great will you be in ten years after a steady diet of gin martinis?
Thankfully, my periods of inebriation of are finally tapering off after a long period where I never wanted to be sober unless I had to be. I used to come home from work and get smashed about 4/5 times a week. Now, the process has reversed itself and I go several days without drinking, then have perhaps one or two when I do. Trying to quit never worked well for me, although I admit that it at least gave my exhausted liver a break.
This may be an irrelevant contribution, though, because I don't write poetry drunk or sober. I do write prose, and I admit that I find it difficult to hit the keys (let alone compose anything) when drunk!
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Lightning Rod
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hester_prynne
Here's one of my favorite drinking songs, even though I haven't had a drop of alcohol in my system for almost 20 years:
"oh, the whiskey was spilt on the barroom floor
and the bar was closed for the night....
when out of his hole ran a little brown mouse
and he danced in the pale moonlight.
Welllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll (hic)
he lapped up the liquor on the barroom floor
and back on his haunches he sat,
and all night long you could hear him roar,
"bring out the goddam cat!"!
heh heh
Hehster...
"oh, the whiskey was spilt on the barroom floor
and the bar was closed for the night....
when out of his hole ran a little brown mouse
and he danced in the pale moonlight.
Welllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll (hic)
he lapped up the liquor on the barroom floor
and back on his haunches he sat,
and all night long you could hear him roar,
"bring out the goddam cat!"!
heh heh
Hehster...
Wow....
Some amazing responses here.
Zlatko: For me, an altered consciousness is required to write poetry. I suppose this doesn't necessarily imply the use of a substance to attain this state. Perhaps meditation could also work. But for me, it's always been alcohol. It slows down and strips away layers of a world of cold data. Actually, my attempts at poetry are a very recent development. But alcohol has always seemed to unveil simple philosophical observations that I otherwise couldn't be bothered with....
But the benefits of alcohol in many ways follow a "bell curve"; it's easy to slide over the top and down the back side before you realize it. It seems alcohol can be a "gateway", as long as one doesn't "hang around the gate" for too long. It is probably a "balance" issue, like most everything else, but one has to judge when to push a little more aggressively, at times.
Typically, much of my writing done under the influence is of limited value, but there are breakthrough images and thoughts here and there, which I try and expand on later. I agree that sobriety is required to have a shot at writing effective prose. But, in my style so far, elements of my semi-drunken poetics and observations regularly turn up therein.
Cat: my "pointless" comment is just irreverent nonsense and mild hyperbole. I do have a confession, though. The reason I quit is because I caught a horrendous case of the flu; something I'm still not quite fully over. Perhaps I might continue the program for awhile. I'm not sure. I'd like to remain "creative", but I also want to be reasonably healthy.... there's that "balance" question again....
Anyway, thank you all for your insights! I appreciate it.
Some amazing responses here.
Zlatko: For me, an altered consciousness is required to write poetry. I suppose this doesn't necessarily imply the use of a substance to attain this state. Perhaps meditation could also work. But for me, it's always been alcohol. It slows down and strips away layers of a world of cold data. Actually, my attempts at poetry are a very recent development. But alcohol has always seemed to unveil simple philosophical observations that I otherwise couldn't be bothered with....
But the benefits of alcohol in many ways follow a "bell curve"; it's easy to slide over the top and down the back side before you realize it. It seems alcohol can be a "gateway", as long as one doesn't "hang around the gate" for too long. It is probably a "balance" issue, like most everything else, but one has to judge when to push a little more aggressively, at times.
Typically, much of my writing done under the influence is of limited value, but there are breakthrough images and thoughts here and there, which I try and expand on later. I agree that sobriety is required to have a shot at writing effective prose. But, in my style so far, elements of my semi-drunken poetics and observations regularly turn up therein.
Cat: my "pointless" comment is just irreverent nonsense and mild hyperbole. I do have a confession, though. The reason I quit is because I caught a horrendous case of the flu; something I'm still not quite fully over. Perhaps I might continue the program for awhile. I'm not sure. I'd like to remain "creative", but I also want to be reasonably healthy.... there's that "balance" question again....
Anyway, thank you all for your insights! I appreciate it.
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Doreen Peri
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Zlatko Waterman
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judih
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i'm in favour of raw uninterrupted vein spilling on the page
to get there takes great inspiration and honesty.
i don't drink
i smoke occasionally
i ingest music often
i ingest life always
when high on any of these elements, and able to sit down to write, i enjoy watching what pours out.
loosening the screws is the main task, after a day job of trying to keep them in place. It's a challenge - stimulating in itself - the task of transitioning.
Switching on like a performer. Now i'm in one mode, now i'm in the next - begging a sense of humour to come along for the ride.
to get there takes great inspiration and honesty.
i don't drink
i smoke occasionally
i ingest music often
i ingest life always
when high on any of these elements, and able to sit down to write, i enjoy watching what pours out.
loosening the screws is the main task, after a day job of trying to keep them in place. It's a challenge - stimulating in itself - the task of transitioning.
Switching on like a performer. Now i'm in one mode, now i'm in the next - begging a sense of humour to come along for the ride.
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