Jack Grapes, Artist, Writer, Author, Instructor: You don't have to have a story. You don't have
to have an idea. Just connect with that moment and maybe you'll write crap but you'll write.
Film Courage: Is that why you love writing poetry, the rhythm of the writing, the rhythm of the word?
Jack Grapes: Well the rhythm is the rhythm of the voice. I mean that's the rhythm of the the
deep voice speaking to someone else in a very intimate way and connecting with him you know
I talked about my dog Jesse who she had cancer and we had to put her down it's in one of my books
I like I like different sizes I like when I'm doing a book I like to think what size
do I want it to be like lucky finds with all the cards now most most of my books are going to be
you know the normal size of a book but once in a while I I'm curious so like I did a book
of haiku oh yeah and I wanted it to be a flip book so I thought it would be about that thick
and it would be 50 haiku but it ended up I wrote 300 haiku and I wrote a introduction
that was uh close to 450 pages oh so it's got a 450 page introduction and then it's got 301 haiku
and the introduction is what does it say here it says in 201 chapters and 601 paragraphs so
the little book I was going to do ended up being like that and it kind of grew so I kind of like
different things this book is a smaller book too and it has a I think of it as a circus
the poems are all different and I have a chagall painting in the front and on the back it's got
a roomy quote with passion prey with passion make love with passion eat and drink and dance and play
why look like a dead fish in the ocean of god rumi so I have a poem in here that is about my dog
Jesse this is not an earth-shattering poem it's just about my dog Jesse who we had to put down
Jesse my dog I was driving back from a music recital this evening and found myself
cruising down a street I used to frequent 30 years ago but haven't driven down since
so many of the places I used to go to are gone a favorite Italian restaurant now a fitness center
a bookstore now an antique store a cafe where I read most of 100 years of solitude
now an ice cream parlor it isn't as if I was planning to go to any of those places
but it makes me sad to know they're gone it doesn't really matter I'm 72 years old
a lot is gone it's all gonna go eventually by the cafe a boy was walking his dog along the sidewalk
one day the boy will be gone along with his dog
my dog is gone Jesse used to lie by my feet as I sat at the computer trying to write a poem
she's gone now no more jessie after i'd written the poem i'd take jessie out for her midnight walk
sometimes we'd pass a house and the people inside might still be up sitting at the table
talking and drinking but mostly the streets were quiet and she and I would enjoy the night air
the way the leaves rustled when a wind came up from the ocean maybe a poem would be buried in
someone's front yard and Jesse would dig it up and bring it to me like a bone she just found
that poem about the man in charge of watering Jesse dug that one up she just dug it up and
brought it to me what you got there girl she dropped it on the sidewalk then trotted off
looking for more poems more bones no more bones now and few poems to be dug up except this one
which is torn at the edges and i've stopped caring about the line breaks or the metaphors or even the
kind of things a poet is supposed to do when writing a poem making everything ship shape
no more bones no more ship shape I'm not even sure you are reading this poem right now maybe
no one is reading it like I said earlier it doesn't matter you know
I write the poems anyway Jesse will come back some night take my poems on our walk
and bury them in someone's front yard and all i'll have to do in my remaining years
is walk my weary bones down the sidewalk and dig them up dig up those poems that Jesse buried
my good girl talk taking such good care of me then and now
Jesse won't be with me but i'll thank her give her a good rub on the back then i'll let her go
so that's about my dog Jesse that's beautiful so it's not so much rhythm as the voice
you know sometimes there are rhythmic things you can do and that's part of your technique
so it depends if I'm doing to be read and sung you know the repetition then I would do that you know
it's also about loss and change you know you talked about walking down the street and
the this restaurant isn't here anymore and this bookstore has changed well it's about I'm 70 I
wrote that when I was 72 I'm 78 now so I wrote that six years ago it's about thinking you know
as I said my dad died when he was 54 and I wasn't I always thought I would live longer than he did
so you know when I wrote the poem I was 72 and you know I'm feeling older your bones your body
you don't you know I can't dunk anymore you know I can't throw a football 70 yards
uh and so you also think of what you can't do as an artist that you're getting older and
uh things are gonna be gone you're gonna lose things friends will die and loved ones will
leave and I was just thinking about that and feeling all that and that jessie was gone but
I thought of how she would bury my poems and then dig them up which is a metaphor of course
and that eventually i'd pet her and let her go that at some point the poems don't come anymore
and the muse that brings you the poems whether it's your dog or the muse or whatever
that will end too and you have to let it go you have to give him a pet and let it go whether it's
a poem or a lover a loved one friend whatever what do you mean by the muse won't come anymore
well the muse you know I don't I don't believe in the muse but I'm just using that cliche that
you know poets sit and write and the muse comes and gives you the poem I don't believe that I
believe that you the muse is in you but I just use that cliche as a kind of the idea that you'll be
sitting at your desk and nothing will come to you anymore you know the muses will say
you know we got to work with this guy in chicago he's just 20 years old he's just starting out uh
you know take care of yourself jack so I use that cliche that the the muse won't come anymore you
you you won't have it what an athlete can lose it a writer can lose it you never know
but can you lose it for a while and get it back I know the the writer's block but is that really
that the muse won't come anymore well I look but we're getting into technicalities here
I don't believe in writer's block okay I can write a sentence hemingway once said
uh when he had write his block he said he would write this down you've done this before
you can do it again all you have to do is write one true sentence he didn't mean true factually
he meant a sentence that was authentically spoken and real and not trying to be a
writer and not trying to gussy it up just saying the simplest thing you could say
you've done this before you can do it again all you have to do is write one true line
well I don't have writer's block you know why because here's what I write
i got up this morning at seven o'clock
I don't feel like writing today I don't have anything to write about it looks like it's gonna
rain and later I have to go to ralph's to get a chicken blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
I don't know what I'm going to write about but I don't care I'm just I'm going to write
well I don't feel like writing I have nothing to write about I feel like I have writer's block
but of course I never have writer's block I don't know what it is a big wooden thing inside my head
just write you don't have to have a story you don't have to have an
idea just connect with that moment and maybe you'll write crap but you'll write
I don't believe in writer's block I don't believe in the muse and inspiration and all of that stuff
I believe in the mechanics of art I believe if you know how to hit a a golf ball and you know
how to hit shoot a basketball and you practice it a thousand times then even if you're not in
the mood you can pick up the damn ball and shoot a hoop I can pick up the damn club and hit the
ball maybe I can only hit it 10 feet because my bones are old and I'm tired but I can do it
I don't have to have I need to be inspired to play golf today imagine if a professional
athlete said I only play when when I'm inspired you know there goes that million dollar contract
why do people call themselves blocked writers
i don't know I'm not a their therapist they're operating under an illusion
they're not very professional yeah if I get an injury I don't go and play that day
but if I'm not injured I play I don't feel like it but I play because I got to play
according to the schedule so I can get up and write i've done it before I can do it again
all I have to do is write one true line I got up this morning at seven o'clock I don't feel
like writing today as a matter of fact I have nothing to write about it looks like it's gonna
rain and later I got to go to ralph's to get a chicken blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
it's not magic do you think people romanticize being a blocked writer makes them more tragic
makes them maybe get some sympathy maybe but if they write about it that would be good there you
go see if you're right about it you know I feel blocked today all right write about it
i just think you know if you can physically hold the pencil or type at your keyboard you
can write something but what happens is when you think of your product and your outline
how am I going to get from point a to b in my outline oh I where am I going to start
and what happens when the door closes and oh god I have writer's block I don't worry about that.
Do professional writers get writer's block?