On the Writing of 500 Poems
On April 1, 2013, I wrote
the first poem I would ever
publish as a blog post.
Today, eleven years and
fourteen days later,
I write my 500th poem
on the occasion
of having written 500
poems in eleven years.
This doesn’t seem like
nothing, but I know some
poets who have written
a poem every day for
365 days in a row.
I can’t name them,
but I’ve heard it’s an
actual thing. And I know
some other poets that
take years to write a
single poem. I can’t name
them either, but I know
they’re out there. What
I mean to say is that
some poets write a lot
of poems and others don’t.
I’ve written 30 poems
in a single month for
eleven consecutive years
and then in between
I wrote a bunch of other
poems to make 500 poems
eventually. I think William
Stafford taught me
everything I need to know
about writing poems.
He wrote a lot of poems.
It’s possible that the guy
wrote a poem every day
for decades running.
And what I learned from
William Stafford is that
you sit down or lie down
or stand up and you write,
one word and then the
next word. You’re just
there, and you write
whatever occurs and then
when the going gets tough
you lower your standards.
I’ve lived my entire
life thus far by lowering
my standards and it has
actually worked out
pretty well for me.
You should try it.
michael jarmer 