Excerpt from 10 Questions by Marc Bowen*
(in reversed order)
5. What inspires you to write?
D.: I write because it comes to me as naturally as breath. I
cannot help but do what I do. It is part of my autonomic system. Inspiration/muse
- It comes but without my understanding. I have no interest in understanding
it. When I learned new songs on guitar and piano, I had a feeling
of having lost a sense of magic to the song after hearing it on album. I
had learned the technical part of it all. I had learned how the clock
worked by taking it apart. I don't want to take my writing inspiration
apart for fear of not being able to put it back together once I took it
apart and understood it. Mostly, I don't want to lose the wonder
of it all. It comes and regardless what brings it, I am satisfied.
1. Does being a tortured soul make a person a better poet?
D.: A
poet is born poet. The "tortured soul" aspect
of it comes from how the poet responds to the weight of being a poet. But
the same goes for the painter or the sculptor. Every artist (this
title is not elastic) comes across different elements to the art which
can be allowed to become "tortures". It can be anything
from how one responds to the creativity filtering through them to trying
to deal with not being able to create a replica of what is envisioned in
the mind. Sometimes the "torture" is social, sometimes
it is created within the artist by the artist. Is it necessary? (I
shrug my shoulders) Does it make one a better poet? (I
shrug my shoulders a second time)
I don't know what makes a poet a poet anymore than I know what
makes a painter a painter. I don't understand what "muse" is. And
I don't want to understand any of this. Whatever that element is
should not be questioned. Just be grateful that the poet is the poet
and the painter is the painter. Question it and you are in
danger of losing it all.
* from the author's website, http://dgarciawahl.tripod.com/id5.html
