Reflecting upon Chapman's Israeli Poet Talk

I really enjoyed the Wilkinson Poetry event that I attended today at Chapman. Even though I don't consider myself a poet, it was really nice to hear from some famous Israeli poets as they spoke about their own experiences not just with writing poetry, but with finding themselves as writers and the unique processes they each had to becoming who they are as writers today.

The talk opened up with a lovely summary of who each of the four Israeli poets were, and the speaker gave a bit of information on each one before they, one by one, took the stand and told their stories. The first, the only man who came up to speak, spent the bulk of his time speaking about how he believes that writers should experiment with their writing style, and that writers "should never develop a pattern of writing, otherwise everything that you write will be a reproduction of what you already know." I thought that this was really good advice because I sometimes feel like I write the same types of stories and I envy those who are able to write well in a multitude of genres. I aspire to be able to do that eventually.

The second speaker, a woman, encouraged us writers in the room to always write down an idea that "screams aloud to be written," especially if "you can't sleep at night until it's written down." I also really agree with this advice, which is why I sometimes, right before I go to sleep, grab my phone and open my notes app to type in any ideas that come to mind when I am desperately trying to sleep, but can't. Again, even though I don't consider myself a poetry writer, I thought her statement about poetry was very accurate: that it "doesn't have to be too serious because it's fun to write." I feel like poetry has this reputation of being very sad and gloomy, and I can't honestly think of any poems I've read recently that are happy. So, I'm hoping more aspiring poets and poets will take this advice themselves. In my opinion, she was the best of the four speakers and she spoke with the most clarity and confidence.

The second woman who spoke, the third speaker, read one of her early poems in the beginning to start off her story. I really enjoyed this poem and I remember the line about "I ate an angel" was repeated several times. She told her story about how she begged to get into a writing workshop after she fell in love with a man who loved poetry; she had always disliked it prior to that, but then realized that she actually had writing talent. The professor saw something in her personality and let her into the class, she said, and she is thankful for what the professor saw in her. Taking that class was her first step into becoming the writer she is today.

The fourth and final speaker, the third woman, spoke about the beauty of writing and how she connects to poetry. She said that poetry is "speaking about something that is unspeakable and hasn't been told yet." I feel like this can apply to fiction writing as well, because many books that I've read have hints of topics between the lines such as dictatorship and politics that are not as obvious to uncover as the main plot line happening.  The woman also spoke about how for her, there is "a relationship between the concrete and the imaginary" that happens when she is writing.  I have a similar relationship to my writing, particularly since my primary writing style is fiction; I think that it is difficult to write about the imaginary, but including some elements of it in fiction writing can spice up a piece.

During the Q&A, each of the authors answered two questions: the first about what a writer should do when he or she experiences writer's block, and the second about what types of writing/authors do they each read to inspire themselves? Some of the best advice given, in my opinion, for the first question was to take some time off and not to force yourself to write through it because sometimes, the inspiration will come back in days or weeks. I think that forcing yourself to write can sometimes produce crap work rather than something of quality, and I'm glad that a group of writers finally agreed with the taking time off and coming back to it idea. (I think this was the first time I heard this advice given.) For the second question, some of the writers listed names of poets while others said that every writer should just be reading more than they write, period. A couple of them spoke about how they could always tell when a writer has written more than they've read, and that their work is just not as good as those who balance reading and writing. Finally, the last piece of advice that stuck out to me was the first woman speaker said that "after reading a good quality poem, you are no longer the same. These are the kinds of poems to read." That can certainly be applied to fiction and any type of writing genre as well, and I have been through that experience after I have finished reading all of my favorite novels. Great storytelling makes me feel more connected to the world and the people around me, which is why I love to read and write.

The event was wonderful and I'm glad I had the opportunity to listen to these successful writers enlighten me for just over an hour. These kind of talks remind me of why I love to write so much and that there is always something I can be doing to improve my craft.