enchantment of the world
Writing about the origins of )TH GOOD /OLD W~AY an obvious influence was left off. That was twitter.
Undoubtedly the restraints on the size of each stanza imposed by the stamp echo the 140 character limit of tweets. This might be nothing other than coincidence except that I have used twitter for 19 months now.
From uncertain and pretentious beginnings I have pared down my approach and become practiced in brevity. In terms of brevity and clarity I should also acknowledge the influence of legal blogger Jack of Kent since earlier this year.
But brevity is not the most important aspect of twitter in the creation of )TH GOOD /OLD W~AY. That is the sense of enchantment with the world that I feel I have regained.
What I mean by enchantment is a sense of the world as fascinating, mysterious and beautiful.
This is not a religious or spiritual experience. I am an atheist and believe that science makes the world seem more incredible and wonderful rather than less.
Nor does this mean that I am unaware of or unconcerned about the cruelty, injustice and unpleasantness in the world.
This enchantment is a way of looking at the world. I believe it originates in feeling more confident, secure and happy across the last year in particular.
In )TH GOOD /OLD W~AY it manifests for me at least in the pleasure I have in creating the poem. It's actually fun to make in a way that writing poetry hasn't been for a long time.
Yet while twitter helped me become aware of this enchantment it was of course not twitter that created it. That was establishing and strengthening friendships and finding a creative place for myself.
All of which sounds cloying and perhaps unimportant set down on the page. But it is important and it is an enchantment I try to share with my friends and more widely.
It is also something I've meant to write about for some time and which I feel I haven't really captured yet.
Perhaps a couple of anecdotes might help. A few times across the summer and early autumn quite large unidentified insects have risen into the air ahead of me and made blundering flights across the road while somehow avoiding traffic. Not once have I found a satisfactory way to tweet the experience although I've wanted to express my pleasure at the flight and to describe how every part of it looks.
Far from being a frustration this makes the experience even more precious.
On another occasion while walking with a friend I was able to show them a natural arch made by trees over a path that looks from a distance like a bridge. There is the beauty of the shape as you approach it, the surprise as it shifts and resolves from a possible human structure to natural form as you get closer, and the light filtering green through the leaves once you're under the arch.
Again this is something that is impossible to tweet. At the same time it's a lovely thing to share, and to show someone directly is the best way to do it.
Although it is only an indirect route, one of the main purposes of this blog across the last three years has become to try and share my enchantment with various artistic endeavours I encounter.
Undoubtedly the restraints on the size of each stanza imposed by the stamp echo the 140 character limit of tweets. This might be nothing other than coincidence except that I have used twitter for 19 months now.
From uncertain and pretentious beginnings I have pared down my approach and become practiced in brevity. In terms of brevity and clarity I should also acknowledge the influence of legal blogger Jack of Kent since earlier this year.
But brevity is not the most important aspect of twitter in the creation of )TH GOOD /OLD W~AY. That is the sense of enchantment with the world that I feel I have regained.
What I mean by enchantment is a sense of the world as fascinating, mysterious and beautiful.
This is not a religious or spiritual experience. I am an atheist and believe that science makes the world seem more incredible and wonderful rather than less.
Nor does this mean that I am unaware of or unconcerned about the cruelty, injustice and unpleasantness in the world.
This enchantment is a way of looking at the world. I believe it originates in feeling more confident, secure and happy across the last year in particular.
In )TH GOOD /OLD W~AY it manifests for me at least in the pleasure I have in creating the poem. It's actually fun to make in a way that writing poetry hasn't been for a long time.
Yet while twitter helped me become aware of this enchantment it was of course not twitter that created it. That was establishing and strengthening friendships and finding a creative place for myself.
All of which sounds cloying and perhaps unimportant set down on the page. But it is important and it is an enchantment I try to share with my friends and more widely.
It is also something I've meant to write about for some time and which I feel I haven't really captured yet.
Perhaps a couple of anecdotes might help. A few times across the summer and early autumn quite large unidentified insects have risen into the air ahead of me and made blundering flights across the road while somehow avoiding traffic. Not once have I found a satisfactory way to tweet the experience although I've wanted to express my pleasure at the flight and to describe how every part of it looks.
Far from being a frustration this makes the experience even more precious.
On another occasion while walking with a friend I was able to show them a natural arch made by trees over a path that looks from a distance like a bridge. There is the beauty of the shape as you approach it, the surprise as it shifts and resolves from a possible human structure to natural form as you get closer, and the light filtering green through the leaves once you're under the arch.
Again this is something that is impossible to tweet. At the same time it's a lovely thing to share, and to show someone directly is the best way to do it.
Although it is only an indirect route, one of the main purposes of this blog across the last three years has become to try and share my enchantment with various artistic endeavours I encounter.
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