Before the Word: A Meditation on Silence and the Poet's Notebook:
Before the Word: A Meditation on Silence and the Poet's Notebook
The poet’s final product, the polished poem resting neatly on the page, is an object of structure, rhythm, and deliberate articulation. It presents an ending, a resolution, or at least a temporary stillness of thought. But the most vital, chaotic, and often-overlooked stage of composition occurs long before the first draft, in a strange, liminal space—the quiet, fertile dark known as “before the word.” This phase is not about writing; it is about receiving. It is a sustained meditation built on radical silence, acute observation, and the humble, immediate act of recording fragmented thoughts.
