Monday night I visited a new writers group (new to me anyway) which meets at a local university. After quick introductions, the small group (four of us) got right to work with a writing exercise. We wrote for about a half hour and then read the results of our exercise. Oddly, I didn’t feel out of place like one might expect. So, I read my selection first (thought about posting it here, but it needs a lot of work) and then listened as everyone else read their work. A talented little group… I’m looking forward to returning next Monday (if they’ll have me). It got me thinking about something I read awhile back:
There’s the poet, the audience, and the poet’s… it seems to me that the poems and poets that I love all participate in this tri-axil relationship with the audience, the poet and this third party. In Emily Dickinson, it would be the Master. Rilke’s angels. Lorca’s duende. Whitman’s America. Ginsberg’s mother. With ancient T’ang Dynasty poets it would be the Universe.
–from an interview with Li-Young Lee, American Poet, April 2004
I’m not sure I have a tri-axil writing relationship. I barely know my audience (thanks to all three of you who keep returning day in and day out). But it was nice to be in a group of writers that boldly share their work among each other. I suppose that’s a start, at least.
Coffeehouse Junkie 