How to increase Poetic Inspiration
By Richard Pettinger
“Inside each human being there is a poet. This poet can bring dawn the loftiest heights of truth and, at the same time, can powerfully eclipse the darkest falsehood if and when necessity demands. ”
- Sri Chinmoy
1. Immerse ourselves in the poetry of great Seer Poets. There is nothing wrong in gaining inspiration from others. Nearly all poets acknowledge that some other person had a big influence on their early writing style. What we should avoid is the temptation to mimic others. This will not work, what we need is to develop our own unique style, however we can definitely gain insights and guidance from other poets.
2. Appreciating the good qualities of others. When we appreciate others good qualities we make these part of ourselves. To read great poets is good, but when we can explain to others and ourselves why they are successful it helps us to highlight their beneficial qualities to our mind.
3. Clear the mind. If we are thinking all the time of mundane things, worries about the future, and concerns about the past; how can we expect to have revelations about lofty experiences? When writing we should try to ignore such thoughts. We need to keep our mind clear to enable inspiration to enter.
4. Meditation can help clear our mind and receive inner inspiration. Meditation enables us to silence the relentless flow of useless thoughts. Through meditation we learn to go deep within where there is a source of creativity and spontaneity.
5. Using the power of nature. If we find meditation difficult, we can get inspiration and clear the mind, by spending time with nature. The beauty, immensity and silence of the natural world can help lift us out of the mundane and into a consciousness where creativity flows more easily. Many of the great poets and thinkers have spent time in nature, deriving much benefit from it. William Wordsworth is a good example, for Wordsworth walking in nature was his meditation and definitely inspired some of his immortal poetry.
A slumber did my spirit seal;
I had no human fears:
She seemed a thing that could not feel
The touch of earthly years.
From: A Slumber did my spirit steal - Wordsworth
However at the same time we shouldn’t feel nature is indispensable for getting artistic inspiration. There is the case of Rabindranath Tagore who went to great efforts to find a remote spot in the Himalayas where he hoped he would be inspired. When he finally got there he couldn’t think of anything. When he returned home to the city, his writing began to flow again.
6. Using the inspiration of Music. Music can be illumining and elevating, definitely some music by Beethoven and others feels like it comes from a higher world. Listening to the right music may well help us to gain more inspiration.
7. Do not Give Up. It was the great inventor Thomas Edison who presciently said that Genius was 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. It is the same with writing poetry; the more we write the more fluent we become. Some say poets are born and not made but Sri Chinmoy writes:
“It is said that poets are born and not made. Unfortunately I do not and cannot subscribe to this view. There are many, many poets I have seen in my lifetime who were not born as poets but, by virtue of their hearts’ climbing cries and one-pointed dedicated lives, have become excellent poets.â€
Our Poetic inspiration will become more powerful if we give more time and practise to writing. Unfortunately unless we have a very rare gift, we cannot expect a poem or writing to suddenly present itself. There is little substitute for hard work.
Richard is a freelance writer and teacher in Oxford. He has a great interest in poetry. He edits a site on the poetry of his spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy http://www.srichinmoypoetry.com