MARY MACKEY ON CREATIVITY

You are invited to read the latest installment to Marsh Hawk Press' "Chapter One Project," an essay on creativity by Mary Mackey. It begins with

My memories go back a long way, too long to be true, people tell me. And yet they are there, stored in a wordless space in my mind, because they came before words, existing in a place that someday I will come to understand is the source of my poetry, perhaps the source of all poetry. It is a country without borders, a place without language, a universe that has not yet been talked into being.

A younger Mary Mackey in Costa Rica

We're delighted to share some words from the Sept/Oct Poets & Writers Magazine featuring On Becoming a Poet:

“The reflections of writers such as Jane Hirshfield, David Lehman, Phillip Lopate, and Arthur Sze offer inspiration, companionship, and good advice for any poet seeking permission to embark on their work.” --The Writer’s Bookshelf: A Year of Craft Reading and Advice, Poets & Writers Magazine

ON MARY MACKEY'S ON CREATIVITY

You're invited to read this wonderful engagement/review of Mary Mackey's book, ON CREATIVITY: WHERE POEMS BEGIN by the Steiny Road Poet! Here's an excerpt:

Mackey says she experienced an altered state of mind since childhood because of abnormally high (and life threatening) fevers. However, Mackey was curious about the culture Schultes studied in the Amazon and traveled and lived there to experience that environment firsthand. Uninterested in the surrealism (being in touch with the unconscious mind) of contemporaries like André Breton,  Stein relied on a disciplined schedule of writing which she did late at night when everyone else slept. Mackey describes how she developed her process of "extreme focus" to move from an ordinary object like an ashtray to her creative landscape. This method of concentration is what she says taught her to re-learn metaphor, something she could do at eleven years old. The point is that children have a natural ability to see things creatively until they lose touch with their inner child by what adults teach them.