Writing Problems: Boredom

Poets should embrace boredom. A recent op-ed by a psychoanalyst about what technology is doing to us described the difficulty of staying with a feeling of engagement with ourselves and the world, instead being drawn into the un-reality of apps and short video clips.

Boredom is a feeling. For poets, boredom is one of the most overlooked feelings that prevents more and better poems from being made. Sitting with one’s own thoughts is unbearable for many people. In fact, there was a study at the University of Florida where researchers told subjects: “Sit down, try to think of a pleasure, but if you want, you can shock yourself with this little electric shock here.” Approximately 67% of the men and 25% of the women chose to shock themselves instead of being with the discomfort of sitting and thinking.