The Associative Link in Poetry

Most of us who write poetry will know that poetic images are very close

to mental associations which are actually ideas formed in the mind, Yet,

since associations differ according to the idiosyncratic personality and

the existential life of each individual poet, they are likely to influence

the poet's style differently. The poet's life-experience and education

usually define his associations and his manner of forming his images

according to them. Of course, these associations are partially formed

in the unconscious. The deeper the poet can delve into his unconscious

mind, the more profound are his associations likely to be. Yet, we might

ask how we can delve deeper into our unconscious? I, as a practising

poet, have found several ways to do so: meditation, deep breathing,

daydreaming, listening to jazz or to classical music, practising cardio-

coherence to disperse stress and anxiety and especially, revising

my poems several times on end have helped me create depth images.