dumbfoundry

Let me tell you, too, about the Rachel poem, about 'A Poet's Death'—it was a very strange experience for me. As I said, I didn't think I would ever write about her. I thought it would be too painful and too difficult. But one morning I woke up with the first line, like I got the first line in my sleep, and began writing the poem. Throughout the writing of the poem, whenever I had difficulty with a line or a word or a rhyme, I'd go to sleep and wake up with the solution to the problem. I never had this experience before—where it felt like half the poem was written while I was asleep. I would wake up with lines and images.

Steinbeck called that a 'sleep jury'.

A sleep what?

A sleep jury.  If you go to bed with a problem you would wake up with the solution.

Yes, that's what I experienced with that poem.  It was very intense.

This entry was posted by Ivy on Friday, December 24, 2004 at 11:39 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.