"What kind of life is this?
A person is so busy that he can't even write poetry?
This is not life at all."
— —Raymond Carver, "Rumors"
How many years have I told myself that I would find a notebook and copy out a collection of poems. Maybe because I didn’t know who to give this copy to, or maybe I couldn’t find the perfect copy, so many years later, I still let the excerpts from various poetry collections scattered everywhere.
Throughout 2017, I did not read any poetry. Thinking about it, I can't help but laugh at myself, why did I so "accept my fate" from a "literary young man" who loves to read poetry to a lonely middle-aged woman without poetry? !
The trigger this time was also due to watching a "frothy and beautiful" love movie, "It's Just a Matter of Love". The hero in it is also a glass-hearted boy who loves to read poetry.
So, I couldn’t help myself and picked up a book of poems that I was about to buy recently. Finally, in 2017, I seized the last opportunity and entered the fantasy world of poetry again.
"All of Us" by Raymond Carver. In October 2016, I went to Xi'an to study flamenco with a flamenco teacher I had followed for many years and prepare for performances with local friends. During my time apart from dancing, I was deeply attracted by the newly built Qujiang Bookstore there. I went shopping during my free time. The reason why I bought this book was because I had read Carver's Cathedral.
I have written about the impact of this book on me in another article.
“In 2009, I was in Guangzhou. Because I was in a foreign country, I didn’t have much entertainment and no friends to get together with, so I read a lot of books that year.
What impressed me the most was that I took time to read in the university study room in the dormitory area arranged by the company almost every week. Although the equipment and environment were not particularly good, at least there was a learning atmosphere.
I happened to be reading Lei at that time. Mond Carver's "Cathedral". At that time, the Chinese version of his famous "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" had not yet been released, but his "minimalist" style had already been praised by Chinese and foreign critics. "Talking about it".
In his autobiography at the end of the book, you can see the description of his development experience as "the chair under his butt may be taken away at any time". It deeply shocked me. And every one of his short stories reads so real and simple.
Everyone who is still writing has a deep feeling for that. It’s writing that makes you pay more attention to everything around you and treat everything with the attitude of a writer.”
But I didn’t know that he had also published a collection of poems, and the more I read, the more I discovered it. One of the criteria for judging whether a person is a good writer is whether he can write loose and free poetry.
There is a poem "Socks" in this collection of poems, which describes the scene of looking for socks. Gosh, even something as mundane as looking for socks in the eyes of secular people can be turned into poetry.
The distant mountains are poetry, the near river is poetry, and the salmon and trout are all poetry.
Love is poetry, death is poetry, and rescue artificial respiration is still poetry.
……
This kind of writer’s special skill reminds me of a sentence written by Maugham in "As the Spontaneity Comes":
< p> "'No inspiration' is just an excuse. People with real 'technical skills' shouldn't have this 'worry'."The implication is that if it doesn't work, it won't work, and experts won't take it. "Lack of inspiration" is used as an "excuse".
Reading poetry can fill this lack of inspiration. More importantly, it allows you to find something, even for a moment, in the fantasy world of poetry and in the scenes described in your writing. It is also the tranquility you need.
In crazy moments, you need to be calmer than ordinary people. Although I reflect on it "afterward" every time, I still believe that one day, this will become a habit and become natural.
Finally, I present Carver’s poem "Company".