Been reading a great book recently called “Light The Dark Writers On Creativity, Inspiration, And The Artistic Process” by Joe Fassier. 

it’s a fascinating glimpse into a wide variety of writers’ approaches to writing and what inspired them.  I don’t read a lot of poetry but I was really intrigued by Emma Donoghue’s (an Irish writer) chapter and her being inspired by this poem by Emily Dickinson:

Wild nights – Wild nights!

Wild nights – Wild nights!
Were I with thee
Wild nights should be
Our luxury!

Futile – the winds
To a Heart in port –
Done with the Compass –
Done with the Chart!

Rowing in Eden –
Ah – the Sea!
Might I but moor – tonight –
In thee!

                                                              Emily Dickinson

O’Donoghue analyses adeptly the passion, the longing and ultimately the unhingedness (is that a word?) of Dickinson.  She aptly describes the slightly imbalanced stalker aspect of Dickinson.  She’d probably be a great person to go on the tear with but God forbid you’d actually be moored to her!

I loved this poem though.  It’s got such a sense of abandon.

Anyway.  I can highly recommend the book.  It’s full of wonderful quotes like this:

“Writing leaves behind a visceral sense of what it was like to be alive on the planet in a particular time. Writing tells us what it meant for someone to be human.  Every art form is a version of this.”   Claire Messud