RonPrice

Eight months before he died in April 1993, Csnadian poet, Roger White sent to me by snail-mail a copy of Rollo May's The Courage to Create with the words "all that Rollo May says about 'the experience' of creativity has been true of my encounters." I tried to weave, therefore, throughout my book on White's poetry many of May's ideas. White gave me this book of May's, published in 1975, in appreciation for my friendship and for the collection of essays I wrote on his poetry and which he gave his approval of in a letter before he died. I extended these original essays ten years later and they are now in a book: The Emergence of a Baha'i Consciousness in World Literature: The Poetry of Roger White, Juxta Publications, Hong Kong, 2003.

ETIOLOGY OF A POEM______________________________________________ ______________
The point to which the will is directly applied is always an idea. There are at all times some ideas which I shy away from or try to, sometimes successfully, sometimes unsuccessfully, the moment I get a glimpse of their forbidding profile upon the threshold of my thought. Volition is primarily a relation between my Self and my own states of mind. The holding of an idea before the mind, the filling of the mind with an idea is due to volition and attention, the affirming and adoption of a thought, keeping the attention strained on an object or idea until at last it grows so as to maintain itself before the mind with ease, is the first fundamental with respect to volition. My poems begin here.

The whole drama is a mental one. The idea must be kept from flickering and going out. I must hear the still small voice unflinchingly and keep hearing it. I must be unwaveringly firm to withstand the pressing thoughts that take me from the task. It is to be preferred, indeed, it is essential, that firmness and effort of attention fill my mind as exclusively as possible. The result is consent to the task: the writing of a poem, the avoidance of some risk, et cetera. The result is also the extraordinarily intimate and important character which the phenomenon of effort assumes in my eyes; the result is the searching of my heart and mind, the dumb reigning in and turning of the will and a tightening of the heartstrings. -Ron Price with thanks to William James, The Principles of Psychology, University of Chicago,1952, p.826.

Here is where my poem begins,
a level of commitment, a level of
principle, some inner state, some
attitude, will, some dynamic, aspiration,
unshakeable consciousness, a filling of
the mind, something intimate that pulls
the heartstrings and turns my will,
flickering, flickering and then it goes out.
The will has done its job.

Ron Price
28 January 2002
(updated for: Poetry in Color
Forum on: 14/7/'08)

butchiesmom

I really have to say, Ron, that it took me a while to read this one because I had to slow down and think of what you were saying. But, since this is an essay, that's a good thing. Essays are supposed to make you slow down as you read to think about the subject and to make you feel what the author feels.

When I read...The idea must be kept from flickering and going out. I must hear the still small voice unflinchingly and keep hearing it. I must be unwaveringly firm to withstand the pressing thoughts that take me from the task. It is to be preferred, indeed, it is essential, that firmness and effort of attention fill my mind as exclusively as possible. ...it brought to mind the problem I have with writing poetry.

It's not so much the words since I'm just as talkative on the keyboard as I am in real life. It's the compression of my ideas, choosing only the words which will convey more meaning, which will give life to the images, the feelings, the pain I want the reader to know.

Your essay, should a person take the time to slow down and appreciate what you have to say, is brilliant.

hugs,
Gail
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