ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

ON INSPIRATION…
© John Peel 29/11/2010

I was stuck for inspiration, I was unsure what to write –
then a building fell behind me… but I didn’t see the sight.
So I just sat there thinking, I was struggling for ideas
when a mountain simply vanished that was there a million years…
but I didn’t seem to notice as I sat there with my pen.
Perhaps if it hit paper I’d have killed a thousand men
in bloody battle, but alas it just stayed still,
the inspiration didn’t strike and maybe never will…


Thankfully though, I have been inspired to write on a number of occasions since then.

Regards


John Peel

mmm Yes John,

Sometimes I think we think too much. If we get out and about, or simply go to our window and actually look at the world, we might find so many things to write about. However, inward thinking can also produce some beautiful work. It is a skill to put personal inner emotions on paper in a way that they can be understood. We often forget that almost everyone has had a heart break, be it by the loss a loved one, human or pet and of course the break up of a romance. Also most people (with a soul) can appreciate the beauty of a dawn or sunset or the sky at night.

In the short time we lived at Marulan, I noticed a tiny native orchid that grew only about one centimetre tall. It was no more than 8mm across and had purple feathery edges and a golden throat. I saw it when I was lying face down on the grass, just after Wayne had run the mower over the square around the house. (you couldn't call it lawn as it was that grey stuff that grows on the highlands that is not actually grass) Such magnificent perfection just took my breath away. I wondered how many people had ever seen it as it was so well hidden. I remember it after about 23 years and yet I haven't written about it. The closest has been 'Violets'.

Love the poem John and the thoughts behind it. Agree with Zondraes comment. Inspiration and beauty if often found in the most mundane things if we open our eyes to truly see and our inner ear to really hear

Enjoyed the poem John. You can't fight it- just got to wait for it to come to you.

Heather

Thank you ladies

You have hit the nail on the head with what I was trying to get across, sometimes the good ideas are much closer than we think. You just have to be able to notice them to write what needs to be written.

Regards


John Peel

Good one John. Whether poetry or something else, we often miss the essential, the obvious, the close at hand while seeking after some preconceived idea. For me, poetry has always been a way of trying to express elusive thoughts that I can't quite come to grips with.

I remember when I was new to the forum, reading a poem by Kym about toothpaste and thinking how clever she was (still is) to write a long poem about something so mundane and taken for granted in our life.

Heather

It could be like that I suppose Peely.

I agree with Zondrae; finding the extraordinary in the ordinary. I suspect that if we can train ourselves to look and listen with the poets eyes and ears, then nothing is mundane.

BadgerBob wrote:For me, poetry has always been a way of trying to express elusive thoughts that I can't quite come to grips with.

Excellent Bob. Very well said.

I realise that making narrative poetry is a legitimate expression , but at the same time I think we ( or I ) spend too much effort looking for the interesting theme or idea to make into our verse, and we perhaps ? forget that poetry is an art and art is about creation. " Picasso said " Some people make the sun into a spot of yellow paint, I make a spot of yellow paint into the sun "

You knew Picasso as well as Da Vinci! Wow!

Heather

But sadly they have never heard of me. ( we need an emoticon with a tongue poking out in distain )