Carmina proveniunt animo deducta sereno

[abu nuwas]

"Poetry is the spontaneous overflowing of
powerful emotions, reflected in tranquillity. And no
one can be said to have had a powerful emotion,
save that he had also thought long and deeply."

-Wordsworth

I believe they are both saying the same thing. Poetry is inspired by the "un-calm", the eventful, the emotionally charged but it is the careful crafting of words produced by a sober mind that channels these into poetry. Hence, poetry is produced (or fine spun, i suppose) from a calm mind.

I agree, absolutely. V difficult to produce anything requiring skill, in a state of semi-hysteria. V unlikely to produce much of interest if one's life has been like a lump of dough. I wish I could quote stuff like that at the drop of a hat!

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Well, there are degrees of a calm mind. There have been times in my life when it was enough to see an image, imagine an interpretation of it and I had no need to actually produce anything: Calm mind, no art. There were years when I amused myself making up poems in my head with no desire to write them down, no art. It's the communication that makes it art, without that need to communicate, no art. I still made stuff, I craved crafts more concrete than words and pictures.

During times when my mind was more stressed out, it could go either way, produce or not produce, it varied.

Right now my mind is a strange combo of calm and hypersensitivity. Valuing words over something more utile is a surprise to me. I don't expect a masterpiece, I'm just amusing myself.

So to answer your question, I don't have a clue.
I'm sure art comes out of all sorts of things, variable for each person and each state of mind.

Good luck with the calm hypersensitivity! Though if you mean in physical terms-- there is no real contradiction, I suppose.

I think Milo's quote rather finishes my topic! I am too ignorant to know who wrote what when, in terms of the ups and downs. The great French poet, crowned 'Prince des Poetes', Paul Verlaine certainly had ups and downs, and in the paper the day after his funeral, someone wrote that without the things he was always repenting (and repeating) he would not have produced the 'slim volume' 'Sagesse'.

That same writer sought to highlight Verlaine's problems with another quote from Ovid: Meliora video proboque; deteriora sequor' (I see and approve the better things, but follow the worse). It was a true bon mot! Now, where's my 'green fairy'?