neophilosophy

"To go is to go farther." --Kenneth Koch

There are lots of sayings around these days due to emails and other Internet activity, but the above I like, particularly when applied to writing.

A short documentary on John Marsden and his new school was on TV the other evening, and I heard an extension of his old favourite 'call to arms'. He used to write 'Take risks!' when signing books for other writers and aspiring writers: now he has extended it, or maybe contracted it to: 'Take care, take risks.' Hmmmm .... I'm still thinking about the implications of this ... I like the bald statement best - Take Risks! It is a call to break out of the conservative, to extend, to try out new things ... In poetry, a poet of the past once said, All poetry is experimental poetry. I know just what he means - writing in our comfort zone doesn't lead to any 'new' poetry, and the old poetry already exists, so why say it again? (to quote Talking Heads).