On Writing
Thought Logs
I
started writing thought logs in August of 2020.
A response to the isolation, the scatter of my mind.
Dreams
& nightmares, observations, random thoughts.
Through these pandemic times, I find the process of writing thought
logs a source of relief, comfort.
Word
lists, juxtapositions, found language.
Each thought log has 16 lines.
Four of the lines have patterns of three: Fish death, coiffed
leaders, splash cellar.
Sometimes a question: How can we propel you?
A fragment: Places with the highest daily reported cases per
capita.
Observation: They colorcoded their bookshelves for social
media consumption.
Instruction: Check the field notes before entering the rodeo.
Feeling: When I get nervous on Zoom, I start a conversation
about hair.
Mantra: Life can’t kill my rainbow.
Listmaking, highlighting, selecting.
I write by hand, later, I transpose.
Thank you for asking, rob mclennan.
Maw Shein Win’s recent poetry book is Storage Unit for the
Spirit House (Omnidawn) nominated for the Northern California Book Award in
Poetry, long-listed for the PEN America Open Book Award, and short-listed for
the California Independent Booksellers Alliance’s Golden Poppy Award for
Poetry. D.A. Powell wrote of it, “Poetry has long been a vessel, a container of
history, emotion, perceptions, keepsakes.…These poems are portals to other
worlds and to our own, a space in which one sees and one is seen. A marvelous,
timely, and resilient book.” Maw Shein Win's previous collections include Invisible
Gifts, Poems (Manic D Press); her chapbooks include Ruins of a
glittering palace (SPA/ Commonwealth Projects) and Score and
Bone (Nomadic Press). She is the inaugural poet laureate of El Cerrito
(2016-2018). Win often collaborates with visual artists, musicians, and other
writers and was a Spring 2021 ARC Poetry Fellow at UC Berkeley. mawsheinwin.com
