In this short video the great Lucille Clifton reflects on where ideas come from.
You can find other Lucille Clifton videos at the Poetry Breaks series on Poets.org.
O at the Edges
Musings on poetry, language, perception, numbers, food, and anything else that slips through the cracks.
O at the Edges 
Kick the ideas out of the way,
and have a hectic poetic day.
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Ha!
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Liz Gilbert says ideas are swarming all around, looking for a “taker” who will help them materialize. Maybe she got that from Lucille?
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Maybe so. Ideas certainly are everywhere!
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Lucille Clifton is the best…
“may you kiss
the wind then turn from it
certain that it will
love your back”
A blessing, indeed. (K)
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Oh, yes!
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I often feel this way when writing. I never seem to have a concrete idea in my head what I want to write, at times I’m simply looking at, say, just an apple tree and my memories fill my head of an old apple tree that stood in my backyard for many years, and how so much of my families’ life revolved around that tree. When I wrote The Apple Tree, the visions of my children flooded my mind and the words seemed to flow from my fingertips. What she says about, seeing, is spot on. Thank you posting this video and thank you for stopping by and taking the time to read my post. It meant a lot to me.
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Thanks for stopping by, Debra. I seldom have anything concrete in mind when I start writing. But seeing what surrounds me, looking at what’s there and even what isn’t there, sets me down a path. Sometimes I stumble, sometimes the words flow.
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Even stumbling can lead us to a path we had no idea we were going on.
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Oh, yes!
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Thanks Robert, I enjoyed a poet break.
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She was wonderful!
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She is so inspirational…
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That seems to be a common word used to describe her. 🙂
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