Poetry Friday -- Writing Habits

In his introduction to my poetry chapbook, Mountain, Log, Salt and Stone, poet Michael Salcman writes:

"She knows all too well how strange and abnormal the everyday world can be. In this she follows in the path of one of her artistic lodestars, the American poet William Stafford."

Swoon. Stafford is one of my heroes. I am writing a series of poetic responses to the poems in his collection, The Darkness Around Us Is Deep. Several of these poems are in the chapbook.

As I was researching new names for my blog, I happened on the Friends of William Stafford website and his poem, "How These Words Happened."

In the interview with poet Robert Bly that introduces The Darkness Around Us, Stafford talks about his habit of rising early to write. Every day. And if the work wasn't so good that day...he said he lowers his standards! Don't you love that?

When I read "How These Words Happened," I imagine Stafford at his early morning work. There is magic in those hours, so close to sleep.

How These Words Happened

by William Stafford

In winter, in the dark hours, when others

were asleep, I found these words and put them

together by their appetites and respect for

each other. In stillness, they jostled. They traded

meanings while pretending to have only one.

Monstrous alliances never dreamed of before

began. Sometimes they lost. Never again

do they separate in this world.

Read the rest of the poem here -- that's at Friends of Stafford. Oddly, there's a slightly different version posted at a couple of websites. Here is one. It's amazing how a couple of changed words affect the poem. My guess is the second version is "correct." I'll check on that and will let you know.

What are your writing habits? Do you rise early to write like Stafford, see the kids off to school first (that's my M.O.), or do those monstrous alliances of words come to you at night?

Poetry Friday is here at Author Amok next week. Exciting! For today's round up, visit Irene at Live. Love. Explore!