Iranian Poet Visit

I wanted to originally write my response on the Iranian poets that came to read for us. I was fortunate enough to get to see them twice during their stay here at Chapman University.
I do not remember her name, but her poetry and her response to some of the questions that students had for her. It was the one poet/writer who also does a lot of translation - of poetry and other works. One thing in particular that stood out to me was when she said that though she liked the idea of people writing everyday and that she believed that in order to grow your craft, you should write everyday - but sometimes what you write is just "shit" (her words, not mine). I think one of the most profound things that she said was that if you need to, leave it. Don't touch it until you are ready. Or rather until it is ready. That it's okay to live your life and to do what you are doing, because if you are truly a writer, that's in your blood. That doesn't just go away. Take some time to walk away from something so that when you come back to it, it will be fresh and new.

Something else that really struck me during the readings later in the afternoon is just how amazing the writing was. How even though some things didn't make sense - and sometimes that's what poetry is, it's not supposed to make sense - every word counted. Every word was meticulously chosen and used and had a purpose. And I know that is something that we have been learning in this class. To choose every word and make it count.