Tuesday, August 08, 2023

Focus / Flow (for poets perhaps)

In the context of the work by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi was a renowned psychologist known for his work on flow, a state of optimal experience where individuals are fully immersed and focused in an activity, feeling energized and in control. His research has significant implications when discussing the rate of information processing in the context of increasing it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihaly_Csikszentmihalyi

Csikszentmihalyi emphasised the importance of attention and focus in achieving flow. To enter a flow state, individuals must concentrate fully on the task at hand, filtering out distractions and irrelevant information. By enhancing these cognitive skills, individuals can process information more efficiently, even within the limitations of conscious processing.

I would posit that any increase is ones brain bit rate / sec processing is to be welcomed.

But, did you ever have some idiot come to the door when you were writing a poem.?

Feckin person / plonker from Porlock.. ;-)

"On awakening he appeared to himself to have a distinct recollection of the whole, and taking his pen, ink, and paper, instantly and eagerly wrote down the lines that are here preserved. At this moment he was unfortunately called out by a person on business from Porlock, and detained by him above an hour, and on his return to his room, found, to his no small surprise and mortification, that though he still retained some vague and dim recollection of the general purport of the vision, yet, with the exception of some eight or ten scattered lines and images, all the rest had passed away like the images on the surface of a stream into which a stone has been cast, but, alas! without the after restoration of the latter."

Samuel Taylor Coleridge 'reflecting' on his composition of the poem Kubla Khan in 1797. 

As Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said:

"A creation of importance can only be produced when its author isolates himself, it is a child of solitude."

In this context poets may wish to refer to Sheryl Crow 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ikjmz_SlGhg

- "A Change Would Do You Good" and the optimum line / message: imho..

"Hello it's me, I'm not at home. If you'd like to reach me, leave me alone"

Whilst this may be perceived as somewhat negative in the context of engagement with the human race, what has that got to do with poetry... ;-)