11-21-2012, 12:02 AM
You can hold the reins on passion. That's what a poem is to me most of the time. I'm a human being, so I can't (always) give in to my animal nature. So that intense energy is like a "demonic" force that I have to capture. Poetry is a religious, magical way of ritual for me. So it's a fight really. Giving intelligent form to wordless passion. It's painful, so it's been a long time since I could be as artful as to using traditional forms; though I get things into similar shapes sometimes. The more you study the stuff, even if you're not using those techniques in the poems you're making, they still can add to the nuances and scope and depth of what you write, and how you experience what you write.