Which Mind Are You In?

How do you write a poem? Where do you get your ideas? How do you know when a poem is finished?

Poets, artists, novelists get questions like these whenever the subject of creativity comes up. Several years ago, I wrote some FAQs giving my typical answers to such things. What follows here is a little more serious discussion.

It's commonplace to divide human mental capabilities into two sets: intellectual and creative, rational and imaginative, left-brain and right-brain, and on and on. Taking these divisions as mutually exclusive is a serious mistake: the two interact, influence each other, blur and blend. Still, there is some truth in the division. (The division is overly simple: we surely think, experience, imagine in more than two modes.)

I'm going to name the two modes analytical and intuitive. Almost any synonyms for these two terms will work, although with different connotations.

So: Which mind do you write poetry with? Both, you say? But you can't use both modes simultaneously — humans can't multitask in the strict sense of the word.

New questions: Which mind do you use most? Which mode do you start with?

If you're concerned about following the rules, if you scan carefully to make sure your meter is correct, if you rhyme according to a fixed scheme, if your rhymes are full rhymes and not half- or slant-rhymes, then, I'd say, the analytical mind dominates your critical process. You will find Edgar Allan Poe's "Philosophy of Composition," a mechanical, rationalized account of how he wrote "The Raven," to be convincing and inspiring. There's no role for the intuitive mode of thinking in Poe's account.

If, one the other hand, you simply start writing and go with the flow, casting aside any concern about form, rhyme, meter, and so on, then your intuitive mind dominates. You will find Jack Kerouac's "Spontaneous Bop Prosody" exhilarating and write all night long.

Which mind do you write in? Which do I? Is one better than the other? There'll be more comment on the "two-minds hypothesis" later on.