"Poetry is just evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash."--Leonard Cohen

Had a little discussion on poetry this morning. At first thinking about this quote I could only think of the poetry I had written in the dark times of my life, the points when I had given up on life and was waiting to check out. The poetry I wrote had much truth and inspiration in it even though in my opinion my life was burning out not burning well.
Then I thought about it, its not what the emotion and inspiration is but the depth and the intensity of it inside you that writes the poetry be it on the downward spiral or reaching dizzying heights.
The response to this was "maybe from one point of view, unless you're sleepwalking and numbing out, your life is always on fire in one way or another" which is truth and lead to another thought from me
Unless we are avoiding life we are always burning just with different coloured flames.


I've tried to write poetry lately but it hasnt flowed its been forced and stale. I need to just let it flow when it wants to. It is water source to be tapped into and used but it is not a well to draw from whenever I wsih but a waterfall that will flow freely or dry up/ice up from time to time to flow again freely when it can and wills once more