For me, a poem rarely comes from a single starting point or “idea”. In fact, I’d be pretty suspicious of a new poem if it did. The poet Les Murray has said that a real, whole poem works on three levels – the daylight conscious mind, the dreaming unconscious mind and the body. If one or other of those is too dominant, then the poem will fail.
06 September 2017, The Tablet
The making of a poem: resurrection in verse
Resurrection in verse
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