[New-Poetry] Re: Poetry Blogs

[Chris Lott]

On 6/12/07, Skip Fox <skip at louisiana.edu> wrote:
> Off topic of blogs and not against Bob, but there's a minor point I think
> worth bringing up, and one I love to make to students. If you "keep a
> journal," you tend to filter many things out of it (grocery lists, license
> numbers of reckless drivers, doodling with words, whatever . . . some of
> which may have turned into something fruitful). But if you have a "notebook"
> which you write in just as regularly as if you "kept it," whatever that
> means, anything visual (and some things otherwise) might go in and prove
> fruitful.

Interesting point. I call it "journalling" but it's really about
anything and everything and not really a diary... at times, when the
well seems completely dry, I might write about something that happened
in my life, but it's as likely to be something from 20 years ago as
that day. All of it happens in a notebook or three that I carry around
with me all the time. Just as I avoid day-to-day diary style entries,
I also avoid lavish journals that I would feel bad scribbling in,
stuffing into various bags, spilling coffee on, etc. Those leather
bound works of art with the finest paper look great and I could
imagine someone more interesting, consistent and neat than I am
creating a handsome legacy with them...

On the other hand, the odd notes that find their way into the journal
because it happened to be handy are sometimes the most interesting to
look back at!

I desperately wish I could draw... a useful skill I've never had any
luck developing.

c