| Misti | I've always said my best poems come from my worst times. When the feeling is really good, it's hard for me to capture it and express it without sounding smarmy or cheesy. Pain is easier for me to write because it puts me in a trance. I go into a numb state kind of like catatonia and the words flow and I can't stop them. I am more self-conscious when writing joyful poems. |
| B.K. | I'm just the opposite when I'm miserable what comes out of me can later become regretable spew so it's best left on my computer hidden away or better yet unsaid. Lately I've had writers block, plus they thought my mothers cancer might have come back, but we got a good report today so now maybe I can think and write again. |
| Corinna | I agree. I think that we tend to hold back so much more pain than we do joy. Pain and heartache tend to tear at your heart and your mind and most of the time the best way to calm this is to write it out. I think joy is easier to express verbally or physically. |
| Kirk | "All happy families are alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way"--same kind of goes for relationships. Or, err, something like that. Also, you tend to have more time on your hands when you're single, and you might be trying to impress the person you're after. And, I dunno, happy poems can very easily sound very cheesy. Despair is always in style, or at least close enough that it keeps a thousand goth stores in business. |
| eyeseemsocalm2all | I agree because sometimes you have to go through a lot of heartache to find who you're really meant to be with. |
| CryingShame58 | I, like Most people that write poetry, probably began writing from heartache other than from the joy of love, but the gift they find takes a life of its on...we have a choice to grow into a writer that can write about anything...although, if we don't use it, we will lose it... |
| Chances | I think that extremes and complexities are easier to write about... whether extreme heartache or extreme joy, or a whole strange and unusual mixture of emotions that come with love. I think when you're not really moved, one way or another, when the complexity does not tug at your heart and braincells for way too much of the day, you're probably not likely to be all that inspired to write about it. Then again, it might be easier to write about. : ) |
| muryan | I agree. To quote Rob Thomas from M20, "I write when I'm sad. When I'm happy, I don't want to sit and write I want to go out and be happy." I feel the same way. |
| darwin | i suck at writing when I'm happy. There just isn't any muse that would take a chance on me... plus I had a high school english teacher who once gave her interpretation of depression, as a need to change. And I think that loves heartache is partly that. And for those who have had that need and desire to write over the years. When we write at least we can change a small part of ourselves, if only through exorcising it out, or making ourselves something we are not in our writings. For me at least, I can write for myself only if I am in the trenches. Otherwise, I have to use my imagination and picture others and situations that I might have had that were akin to it. so yes. writing in love doesn't exist for me (much) writing out of love gives me some of he best things I've ever written. |
| iwan pritchard | Why would you assume that "most" poets HERE would probably say that it's easier to write from heartache than from the joy of love? What kind of sad commentary is that on our beloved community in Blenderwood? Blenderwood - is that what a guy gets reading sexy romance poetry? |
| Crystal | I myself, tend to be able to work through pain, through poetry, although, at times, it's too deep to do that. When I look back through my account, most all of my poetry is written when I was feeling down, or confused and sad. |
| kluless | I tend to divide it down the middle (happy/sad), so I think that as long as you can channel that emotion, whatever it may be, any poet can write from any emotional location. As for me, I think that ANY poetry depends on where I'm coming from, and I have not been thrown into the Pit of Despair in a while, thank goodness. |