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Creativity: Where Poems Begin: Where Poems Begin
Mary Mackey charts the paths of her own creativity as she tries to discover an entry point to the magical place where the seed of a poem starts to open. A meditation on how the sources of creativity emerged from a vast, wordless reality and became available to a poet. As such, it is not only a memoir; it is an exploration of the power and process of becoming a poet. What is creativity? Where do creative ideas come from? What happens at the exact moment a creative impulse is suddenly transformed into something that can be expressed in words? To describe creativity is extraordinarily difficult because the moment of creation comes from a place where language does not exist and where the categories that determine what we see, hear, taste, and feel are not immediately present. In our daily lives we tend to live on the surface, unaware of the complexity and richness of what lies below. Poetry creates itself, bubbling up from the depths until it reaches that part of our brains that transforms consciousness into words. Poetry chooses the poet. The poet did not choose it. This book is a journey to that place where all poems begin. "Mackey's vast body of work, and all the unique forms of creativity it delivers, is definitely worth delving into."-- Nasty Women Writers "Read this book outloud to find out more about where poems come from...Mackey's style is immensely lucid, readable, and engaging... This book will be enlightening not just to anyone interested in the creative process, but also to creative writing students at all levels, discovering in themselves their own pre-language source."--Synchronized Chaos Magazine "[I ] read Mary Mackey's WHERE POEMS BEGIN with giddy pleasure."-- Scene 4 Magazine Mary Mackey's WHERE POEMS BEGIN is both effervescent and analytical... Mackey finds a world that answers to her need to the uncentered, the unconfined... What I like about CREATIVITY is that it doesn't pretend to be an explicit work of instruction, a how-to for poets. Rather, it is a crisply worded narrative . . . that puts up a spirited resistance to easy classifying, and that is its consistent lesson for the developing poet or novelist--find your own off-road, meandering route to creativity... This book invites the reader toward open-ended creativity, and is the polar opposite of a paint-by-the-numbers approach. CREATIVITY implicitly urges the reader to stay receptive and persist through all the doubts, distractions, and "failures" to success, whether the rewards are small or big."-- Poetry Flash Magazine Literary Nonfiction. Poetry.
- GenresPoetry
110 pages, Paperback
Published September 1, 2022
3 people are currently reading
6 people want to read
About the author
Mary Mackey
40 books57 followers"New York Times" bestselling author Mary Mackey's published works include 13 novels, and 7 books of poetry including "Sugar Zone" which won the 2012 PEN Oakland Award for Literary Excellence. They have sold over a million and a half copies and been translated into twelve foreign languages including Japanese, Hebrew, and Finnish.
Mary is related through her father's family to Mark Twain. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard and received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Michigan. During the early 1970s she lived in the rain forests of Costa Rica. For the last twenty-five years, she has been traveling to Brazil with her husband Angus Wright. The rainforests of the Amazon and the people of Brazil have been a major influence on two of her collections of poetry, "Sugar Zone" and "Travelers With No Ticket Home", and on two of her novels: "The Widow's War," and "The Village of Bones," which is a prequel to her bestselling Earthsong Serious about Prehistoric Europe.
From 1989 to 1992 she served as Chair of PEN American Center, West. Currently, she is Emeritus Professor of English at California State University, Sacramento.
While her poetry has mainly centered around the traditional lyric themes of love, death, and nature, her novels have ranged from the Midwestern United States to the Goddess-worshiping cultures of Neolithic Europe. A screenwriter as well as a novelist, she has sold feature scripts to Warner Brothers as well as to various independent film companies.
Mary has lectured at many places including Harvard and the Smithsonian. Additionally, she has contributed to such diverse print and on-line publications as The Chiron Review, Redbook, and Salon. She occasionally writes comedy under the pen name "Kate Clemens".
Her popular "People Who Make Books Happen" interview series can be found on her Blog http://marymackey.com/the-writers-jou.... A free resource for writers and readers, it contains interviews with experts on various topics including "How To Get An Agent," and "Helping Independent Bookstores Survive and Thrive." You are invited to ask Mary questions about these interviews and other topics by going to the Goodreads "Ask The Author" section of this profile page or by visiting her website at http://marymackey.com/.
The photograph of Mary Mackey was taken by Irene Young.
Mary is related through her father's family to Mark Twain. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard and received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Michigan. During the early 1970s she lived in the rain forests of Costa Rica. For the last twenty-five years, she has been traveling to Brazil with her husband Angus Wright. The rainforests of the Amazon and the people of Brazil have been a major influence on two of her collections of poetry, "Sugar Zone" and "Travelers With No Ticket Home", and on two of her novels: "The Widow's War," and "The Village of Bones," which is a prequel to her bestselling Earthsong Serious about Prehistoric Europe.
From 1989 to 1992 she served as Chair of PEN American Center, West. Currently, she is Emeritus Professor of English at California State University, Sacramento.
While her poetry has mainly centered around the traditional lyric themes of love, death, and nature, her novels have ranged from the Midwestern United States to the Goddess-worshiping cultures of Neolithic Europe. A screenwriter as well as a novelist, she has sold feature scripts to Warner Brothers as well as to various independent film companies.
Mary has lectured at many places including Harvard and the Smithsonian. Additionally, she has contributed to such diverse print and on-line publications as The Chiron Review, Redbook, and Salon. She occasionally writes comedy under the pen name "Kate Clemens".
Her popular "People Who Make Books Happen" interview series can be found on her Blog http://marymackey.com/the-writers-jou.... A free resource for writers and readers, it contains interviews with experts on various topics including "How To Get An Agent," and "Helping Independent Bookstores Survive and Thrive." You are invited to ask Mary questions about these interviews and other topics by going to the Goodreads "Ask The Author" section of this profile page or by visiting her website at http://marymackey.com/.
The photograph of Mary Mackey was taken by Irene Young.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 3, 2024
Creative! Human! Dynamic! Solutions!
Mary Mackey read pieces of Creativity: Where Poems Begin at 2727 Gallery for Poetry Flash. She clearly describes that pre-literate, not-very verbal state of pure being, emotion, reminiscence and physical sensation poetry buds from with miraculous accuracy. I’ve been writing poems for 60 years now, graduated from a MFA program etc. etc., but never heard the practice explained with such elegant simplicity.
When she begins her novel, Immersion, which she realizes much later “is also a 126-page poem,” she says, contemplating an ashtray in the library at her elbow (many years ago, 1969, University of Chicago) : “I will search out, find, and resurrect the way I saw the world as a very young child – a world in which categories did not yet exist, in which there was no context, no expectation, no reason not to look at the unimportant details of things as well as the important ones…”
The story of her life leading up to and after discovering that process is unique and fascinating, but can be summed up as the Cosmic Truth she gleaned from it: “So out of great pain came a great gift.”
Follow her path to and from that, with a number of her fine poems along the way. GOOD!
(Published as “Six Creative! Human! Dynamic! Solutions!” in Knox Book Beat, The Berkeley Times, 21 September, 2023.)
Mary Mackey read pieces of Creativity: Where Poems Begin at 2727 Gallery for Poetry Flash. She clearly describes that pre-literate, not-very verbal state of pure being, emotion, reminiscence and physical sensation poetry buds from with miraculous accuracy. I’ve been writing poems for 60 years now, graduated from a MFA program etc. etc., but never heard the practice explained with such elegant simplicity.
When she begins her novel, Immersion, which she realizes much later “is also a 126-page poem,” she says, contemplating an ashtray in the library at her elbow (many years ago, 1969, University of Chicago) : “I will search out, find, and resurrect the way I saw the world as a very young child – a world in which categories did not yet exist, in which there was no context, no expectation, no reason not to look at the unimportant details of things as well as the important ones…”
The story of her life leading up to and after discovering that process is unique and fascinating, but can be summed up as the Cosmic Truth she gleaned from it: “So out of great pain came a great gift.”
Follow her path to and from that, with a number of her fine poems along the way. GOOD!
(Published as “Six Creative! Human! Dynamic! Solutions!” in Knox Book Beat, The Berkeley Times, 21 September, 2023.)
June 9, 2024
Mary Mackey's "Creativity: Where Poems Begin" is a profound exploration of the elusive nature of creativity. Through a blend of memoir and meditation, Mackey delves into the origins of poetic inspiration, capturing the transformation of raw, wordless impulses into expressive language. Her reflections offer valuable insights into the poetic process, making this book enlightening for both seasoned poets and aspiring writers. Mackey's engaging and lucid prose invites readers to embrace their own creative journeys, encouraging a departure from rigid methods in favor of a more intuitive, open-ended approach. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the mysteries of artistic creation.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews