Too Happy?

HI!

I've been away for a short while now, and I think I pinpointed why. I'm not 100% sure, but I think I'm in too good of a mood to write lately. I hear us writers are usually quite emotionally driven and I think my most powerful writing comes out when I'm 'down.'

Just curious. Has anyone else had similar experiences?

Poetry is sadness, Jordan.

Happiness is not an inspiration for me.

Welcome back

I don't totally agree with: poetry is sadness

It can reflect happiness also, as in friendship and humor poems... but such poems are rare... sadness/darkness is usually the top category

When I'm happy, being happy is its own release.
When I'm sad, creativity is a way to vent the emotion and make it easier to compartmentalize.

If you are to write epic poetry that speaks of your inner emotions, you MUST be sad. I can't write when I am happy at all. I might submit a poem on here but it wouldn't be as good as those I have written while crying or something. That's what I think!

Welcome back i'm kind of nice to this site nice to meet you Jordan :)

It is hard to draw inspiration from happiness. And it really is hard to write when you are happy. When you're happy, you don't want to sit on your desk all day writing, right? You want to be outside and doing something... happy.
From my experience, the most likely cause of my writer's block is happiness.
And, welcome back, Jordan :)

I totally hear ya, Jordan. I don't know if I can ONLY write when I'm sad, but there definitely has to be some sort of internal vagueness or conflict. Writing helps me think conflict through, and figure out how I really feel. Even when I'm writing happy nature poems, I usually can't write them without some sort of melancholy. I think it's pretty accepted in the creative world, but it's kind of a bummer. We have to choose between being content and producing good work? Dang!

'We have to choose between being content and producing good work?'

Sibs. Ehem. You are 100% right except that it is not OUR choice. Bah!

OR NOT:

"I sing the body electric,
The armies of those I love engirth me and I engirth them,
They will not let me off till I go with them, respond to them,
And discorrupt them, and charge them full with the charge of the soul."
-- Walt Whitman

"Suburbia is ...
cheering kids and parents
at the soccer game in the park
three blocks away
...
I am not numb
to the problems of the world
but today we sit on vacation
in suburbia." - Larry

"Slow down you move too fast
Got to make the morning last,
do do do do dah
Everything's groovy"
-Paul Simon

I swear that yours, sir, screams the loudest between them all!

I write poetry whenever I feel it (often), have had time to myself to reflect upon it (less often) and time to articulate it (rare). For this reason, I wrote the most when I was a hermit. I wasn't unhappy, but I had more time to myself. It was unhealthy. I don't often write from personal sadness anymore, it does very little. I write from beauty, from people, from life. These things have sweet ironies, intricacies and bitter shades in any case, otherwise they would be no good as writing material. Usually I write as a form of reverence. The undercurrent of sadness that is present is the persistent, inorganic compulsion to write it down.

I'm glad you're happy, Jordan.

Jordz....well for me, I really write whenever my emotions step up from the neautral level, as in, when I'm down, and when I'm happy XD

then when I am feeling neautral, and unable to write, I just feel like writing about it XD

Yes, definitely, Jordan. I started writing when I was at a crossroads in my life and felt like just disappearing from the earth. Because of this ability to vent (which I discovered at that point in my life) and receive feedback from others on here I picked myself up again. The few poems I have written since then are about loss, well mostly anyway, and I derive great comfort in making and rereading both the poem and the feedback from friends on here:)

Writing is a great coping-mechanism:)

I agree that it is very hard to write poems when your all happy and wanting to go out and do stuff. But then again sometimes when I'm happy I like to go outside and write a nature poem. [:

But I do agree my greatest and best poetry comes when I am down or sad about something. I'm more emotional then so it's easier to write and portray my feelings better.