I’m in the research phase of writing poems for my next poetry collection.
My last 2 collections were written after a long sojourn into research:
Red Riding Hood’s Real Life
&
Four Quarters: an homage to T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets
Right now, I am reading and taking notes, but not writing any poems. At least not yet.
Maybe that’s because the current book is kind of boring. I am still going to plod through it. Hope the next one will be better.
I don’t write all my poems this way. It’s only when I am working with a theme, especially one way above my head, that I do this.
This collection has a science theme.
Until I write a whole group of acceptable poems, I am going to be slapping myself on the forehead, saying, “Why do I torture myself this way?”
Maybe I like the challenge. And I do enjoy learning more about topics that interest me.
But sometimes the research phase is overwhelming.