“I want to consider what William Stafford’s daily writing pages contained and how they worked for him–
how something like his approach might work for any of us who choose to give such daily writing practice a try.”

Each page begins with a date.

“Once I write the date on a piece of paper,” he said once, “I know I’m okay. I have made it to my writing.”

This is the “open sesame” move of the daily writing practice, for by jotting the date down on a page, you have accomplished the most difficult first step:

you have shown up and you have begun.

–Kim Stafford

Four Elements of a Daily Writing Page in William Stafford’s Practice

To see all the posts in the series Listening to My Life :: Homeschooling an MFA in Poetry, click here.

This was the title of a workshop last January at AWP in Portland and the subtitle of a book by Craig Morgan Teicher. I didn’t go to the workshop. Somehow just the title was enough for me to chew on. Enough to get me moving and thinking in the right direction.

If a poet is going to progress, it’s not enough to simply put in the hours. To show up at the page day after day till you’ve reached mastery. A writer needs not just vertical growth accumulating through time but also horizontal growth.

The work must deepen. But there’s no blueprint for this growth, no guaranteed path.

Just yesterday Jen mentioned that her writing comes in cycles. And last week Melissa shared how handwork is creating space to ponder creatively. I think following these hints and intimations is a part of the essential work we each must do if we are to progress.

I have been putting my hand to William Stafford’s four fold way of writing, trying to linger a bit like Melissa, past the dreams and dailiness that come, waiting for a phrase the carry my jottings closer to a poem. Like Jen, I’ve noticed that these daily ways of coming to the page shift over time and I’m trying to follow that thread.

To see all the posts in the series Listening to My Life :: Homeschooling an MFA in Poetry, click here.

One of my favorite stories from the Desert Fathers is about the disciple who prays and fasts and wonders what more he must do. The abba lifts his hands in prayer. Each finger becomes a flame. He asks, Why not be totally changed into fire?

So Far So Good, Final Poems: 2014-2018 came out earlier this year from the good folks at Copper Canyon Press. The introductory note says that Ursula finished the revised manuscript on January 15, 2019. She would die seven days later. With this collection Ursula has turned into fire.

Each morning before the house wakes, I light candles and brew coffee and approach my notebook first with other people’s poems. I copy out by hand poems I love or want to learn or poems that have happened across my path.

This morning I started at the beginning of So Far So Good with the intention of getting all 66 down by hand.