Confidence, Poetry and Life: Sage Cohen, Living the Life Poetic

April 24, 2009 · by Joanna Paterson · in

An interview with writer Sage Cohen about her new book: Writing the Life Poetic

Do you think a lack of confidence gets in the way of people trying their hand at poetry?

Absolutely! I think this is the number one reason people don’t try poetry. While working with writers for the past fifteen years, I have observed that even the most creative people fear that they don’t have what it takes to write and read poetry.

I wrote Writing the Life Poetic to put poetry back into the hands of the people––not because they are aspiring to become the poet laureate of the United States––but because poetry is one of the great pleasures in life.

As I see it, FUN is the best way to move through lack of confidence.

That’s why every exercise, insight, craft tip and content prompt I chose was designed to invite readers to have fun tuning into the poetry of their lives—and getting it down on the page.

How can the practice of poetry help us to become more confident in our writing?

Poetry attunes us to the vast possibilities of language. We learn to discern whether to choose the word wait, abide or endure to reflect the right shade of meaning, the best rhythm and sound…

We learn how to listen to light and that loneliness has a taste. We learn that to name things right is its own kind of ecstasy. And when we hit the sweet spot–finding just the right word or phrase or metaphor or image–we gain confidence that there will be more of such discoveries available to us when we practice tuning in.

In effect, the more we write, the more confident we become.

Can you see ways that poetry can help build confidence not just in writing, but in life?

The practice of poetry teaches us to pay attention. It invites us to observe, feel into and consider our lives—and our world. This benefits us and it benefits our writing because we don’t just see things as they are—we see them as we are.

Poetry can help us give voice to feelings and ideas that feel too risky and complicated to speak out loud.

There is a kind of alchemy in writing through such vulnerabilities…by welcoming them in language, we can transform the energies of fear, pain and loneliness into a kind of friendly camaraderie with ourselves. In effect, we can write ourselves into the confidence that we have what it takes to make sense of and survive the challenges that life inevitably presents us with.

My invitation to you: The next time you feel discomfort, poetry can help you find someplace to go with it. Next time you feel the itch, let poetry help you scratch it. Next time you experience impatience, you can transform it into interest through the lens of a poem. Next time you feel anger, you can dig deeper and find the awe underneath. This is the gift of poetry. You can write yourself where you need to go.

What advice would you give someone who was interested in writing some poetry, but didn’t have the confidence to start?

I believe that every one of us has a swarm of poems flitting around our heads at this very moment, waiting to land. They’re trying to figure out how to penetrate our I-don’t-know-how force field. A really useful place to start a poem is with freewriting–because freewriting dives under our thinking into the ideas streaming below where we’re stuck or judging or lacking in confidence. It taps us right into the source of what is alive in us.

Put your pen to paper and keep it moving for ten minutes without stopping. Then put your notebook away without looking at it.

The next day, pick up your freewriting and underline every word or phrase that looks interesting or surprising to you. Choose one, and write that down as your first line. Maybe you want to also include a few other phrases from your freewriting too…

Let the poem unfold from there and be willing to go where the language takes you.

~~~

Finally, seeing as how we couldn’t have a post on poetry without a poem, here’s one of Sage’s.

Leaving Buckhorn Springs

By Sage Cohen

The farmland was an orchestra,
its ochres holding a baritone below
the soft bells of farmhouses,
altos of shadowed hills,
violins grieving the late
afternoon light. When I saw
the horses, glazed over with rain,
the battered old motorcycle parked
beside them, I pulled my car over
and silenced it on the gravel.
The rain and I were diamonds
displacing appetite with mystery.
As the horses turned toward me,
the centuries poured through
their powerful necks and my body
was the drum receiving the pulse
of history. The skin between me
and the world became the rhythm
of the rain keeping time with the sky
and into the music walked
the smallest of the horses. We stood
for many measures considering
each other, his eyes the quarter notes
of my heart’s staccato. This symphony
of privacy and silence: this wildness
that the fence between us could not divide.

About Sage Cohen

sagecohenSage Cohen is the author of Writing the Life Poetic: An Invitation to Read and Write Poetry(Writers Digest Books, 2009) and the poetry collection Like the Heart, the World.
An award-winning poet, she writes four monthly columns about the craft and business of writing and serves as Poetry Editor for VoiceCatcher 4.

Sage co-curates a monthly reading series at Barnes & Noble and teaches the online class Poetry for the People.

To learn more, visit www.writingthelifepoetic.com. Drop by and join in the conversation about living and writing a poetic life at www.writingthelifepoetic.typepad.com

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