Melinda Palacio
A question I’m often asked is a vague inquiry about where I get my inspiration. My answer to where poems come from may sound equally vague and elusive, especially after a year of lockdown and experiencing the world from my living room window. The window is a sliding door onto the balcony where I spent many hours bird watching, reading, writing, learning the ukulele and participating in readings and meetings online, where most of life took place.
While I joined many bakers in the sourdough brigade, keeping sourdough starter healthy and at the ready to turn into bread wonders and crackers, I realized I had to stop with the bread production and consumption. Although I don’t have an allergy to wheat, I don’t have the metabolism of young person and I staying indoors doesn’t help either. With the world awakening, it was easy to neglect Seymour (the name of the sourdough starter. I am a little sad about Seymour demise. Seymour is no more. While I no longer have to keep the pet in the refrigerator, I think I’ll give up baking for a while all together; at least until my expanded waistline shrinks a bit. All that work at home means I need a good diet, even my dog is on a diet. She was a pudgy puppy when we adopted her. We are helping each other get back into shape.
No matter what I’m writing, I often start with a phrase or a sentence, usually taken from my notebook. For a few months, I had fallen out of habit of writing in my journal and I experienced a dry spell with little ideas. Now, that I’ve returned to the practice, I have more projects because I can remember those sparks of and ideas that nag me in the middle of the night. I used to think that if the idea was good enough, I’d remember it the next day. However, these days, I can’t even fool myself into believing this is true. Ideas, whenever they arrive must be honored by immediately writing them down or else they will move on, and believe me someone else will be ready to listen and jot down that stroke of genius. I’ve found that it’s important to respect those ideas and breath life into them by following through with them by starting with a visual manifestation of the words, a simple jotting down of a a phrase or word or sentence or allow yourself to get as much of the idea on paper as is possible before going back to sleep or attending a meeting or doing some task that prevents you from finishing the thought.
I do not have a set notebook for jotting down all the ideas that pop into my head. I would certainly recommend having just one place to turn to. I grab the closest piece of paper, notepad or blank journal. The most important thing is to write down the idea, especially if I know the idea will become a poem or story, or song.
While I joined many bakers in the sourdough brigade, keeping sourdough starter healthy and at the ready to turn into bread wonders and crackers, I realized I had to stop with the bread production and consumption. Although I don’t have an allergy to wheat, I don’t have the metabolism of young person and I staying indoors doesn’t help either. With the world awakening, it was easy to neglect Seymour (the name of the sourdough starter. I am a little sad about Seymour demise. Seymour is no more. While I no longer have to keep the pet in the refrigerator, I think I’ll give up baking for a while all together; at least until my expanded waistline shrinks a bit. All that work at home means I need a good diet, even my dog is on a diet. She was a pudgy puppy when we adopted her. We are helping each other get back into shape.
No matter what I’m writing, I often start with a phrase or a sentence, usually taken from my notebook. For a few months, I had fallen out of habit of writing in my journal and I experienced a dry spell with little ideas. Now, that I’ve returned to the practice, I have more projects because I can remember those sparks of and ideas that nag me in the middle of the night. I used to think that if the idea was good enough, I’d remember it the next day. However, these days, I can’t even fool myself into believing this is true. Ideas, whenever they arrive must be honored by immediately writing them down or else they will move on, and believe me someone else will be ready to listen and jot down that stroke of genius. I’ve found that it’s important to respect those ideas and breath life into them by following through with them by starting with a visual manifestation of the words, a simple jotting down of a a phrase or word or sentence or allow yourself to get as much of the idea on paper as is possible before going back to sleep or attending a meeting or doing some task that prevents you from finishing the thought.
I do not have a set notebook for jotting down all the ideas that pop into my head. I would certainly recommend having just one place to turn to. I grab the closest piece of paper, notepad or blank journal. The most important thing is to write down the idea, especially if I know the idea will become a poem or story, or song.
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