Aha! Moment

It occurred to me in one of my spare half-moments this chilly morning as I hurried and hustled 3 kids out of the door to catch the school bus at 7:37, that there is a reason that most of what little creative writing I've done in the past 10 years has been poetry.  I know it should be obvious, but it's time - or the lack of it.

I only have time for poems!  Poems are quicker for a number of reasons, not just because they are often short.  (At least mine are.)  It's also easy to build out the structure of a poem. I have no problem jotting down a word or two that falls from my psyche and build that out into a more complex, but still concise expression of  thought and feeling - even at a later point.  I only need a few words to get going.  I play with those words -linking them and adding others, turning them around and exchanging them - until I find I'm expressing my heart's intent. 

Poetry can be so elegant.  I think it's because of the flexibility of the form.  You aren't tied to grammar conventions or traditional meanings.  Word combinations can explode on the page in way not seen in prose - distilling the essence of powerful emotions and thought.  You're essentially bottling meaning right there on the page. 

Because with poetry I'm freer also from the conventions of linear thought, I can hold on to the stream of consciousness, even when my 6 year old drills into my ear with a staccato "Mom...Mom...Mom...MOM!  I'm trying to ask you something!  OK...Can I have a cookie?"  After yet another sugar negotiation with this persistant little badger, which can sometimesgo on for the better part of at least a half hour - I can still come back to my jumble of portent words and phrasings, and pick up where I left off, because they immediately evoke what made me want to write in the first place.  I get back fast.  If I were working on an essay or novel, I'd be done for the day.  I just don't have the stretches of uninterrupted time I personally need for that kind of plotting and planning!

Maybe if I keep after this, writing what I can, when I can, I'll get to the point where I can get a flow of ideas onto the page.  I'll keep writing, even when I hate what I see, because I know that's the only way to oil the gears.  Someday, I may find that I'm several pages into some idea, and turn around looking for that little cookie wrangler, only to find I have time to spare.  I'm in no hurry.