My day of inspiration at the PWLive

By vinodnarayan on January 11, 2015 • ( 0 )

If you have had one of those rare delusions that you are writing OK, you should attend a writer’s event and meet other writers. You will know how serious people take their craft and you will also get to know how well people write and how committed they are. I had such an experience today as I attended the PWLive event organized by the Poets & Writers Inc.

It is true that a community makes you better, both as a human being and as a writer. The interesting thing is that when your delusion is straightened it is never demotivating but a revelation that you can do better than what you do now.

When an event brought aspiring, emerging, published and award winning poets and writers along with publishing and publicity resources the discussions moved from inspiration to publishing and promotion through the recollections, experience and mystics of writing. One whole day when we got to hear the stories of how stories came into existence. The pathways poets take and the pathways poems take them through. A peek into how a first impression can be made pitching to a publisher.

Each session connected well with the audience starting with an introduction to the Bay Area resources for writers with a panel from the historic city lights bookstore, Poetry Flash and so on. Resources are what writers bank on to connect, perform, improve and inspire each other.It was followed by a session on the dynamics of publishing, direct publishing and self publishing and publicity aspects of writing. The long and mysterious period between writing and getting read.

Next session was quite innovative and it was primarily to look at a few query letters writers sent to publishers. It gave audience a feel of real life queries that got discussed and suggestions addressed by the panel. I thought that was quite new. What do you pitch and how will your pitch your work….

The session that was my favorite was where we got to see David Shields and Caleb Powell in action with glimpse of the Quarrel. Even a slice of the upcoming James Franco movie on their book ‘I THINK You’re TOTALLY WRONG – A Quarrel’. I also got a chance to pick a signed copy of the book and a picture with both David and Caleb. The discussion, sorry quarrel of life and art is something I am personally connected with, one such stuff always happening inside me. I am sure the book will be a treat.

Then came a very inspirational panel discussion on ‘Why people write’ and what got them to write and how they keep writing. It was a very insightful session in the sense some of the observations and pieces of advice were very valuable. Like when Alejandro mentioned that you refine your poem through reading sessions till it becomes so tight like a dwarf star in a spoon.. small but carrying a ton of weight… He also mentioned that reading to the loved one was the best way to explore poetry, which I agree 100 percent. Again the insights into how many writers write differently, some edit as they write while some let it just come and then edit later. Many styles, many experiences all to better the craft of writing… A very inspirational session.

The final session was an inspiration experiment of how one art form can inspire other art forms and there by creating two distinctly different experiences, one on its own individual strength of creativity and other by being part of the whole experiment.

I thank the entire Panelists, members of Poets & Writers Inc. and other people I met there.. All you guys made my day… Thank You…. and I am dedicating this old poem of mine which I wrote when I once asked myself the question ‘why do I write Poetry?

Why Poetry?
Poetry gives your life back to you
The life that you abandoned on the busy street
The life that you let people trample on
The life that you lost in the corporate corridors
Poetry gives that life back to you

Poetry tells you that you are more
More than what the mirror can ever show you
More than what you can see in other’s eyes
Much more than what your senses can ever savor
Poetry tells you that you are much more

Poetry gives you a sense of hope
The hope that there will always be a tomorrow
The hope that it would be better than today
The hope that you and I will be there to see it
Poetry gives you and me the hope

Poetry empowers you to feel
To feel the pain of the millions unknown
To feel the plight of those dead, alive and to be born
To acknowledge the existence of things other than you
Poetry empowers you to be a human again

Poetry challenges you to respond
Respond to the meaning hidden in the words
Respond to the silent requests in the lines
Respond to those for whom it is written
Poetry challenges you to change the world

Poetry makes you believe again
Believe that you can do it now
Believe that it is always worth
Believe that goodness prevails
Poetry makes you believe beyond limits

Poetry is all you will have in life
When silence becomes unbearable
When loneliness also un-friends you
When you are the last life form on earth
Poetry is all you will have in life

-Vinod-