“You’re working on a poem or story, when you’re hitting a dead end, when it’s not going, take it with you. Get away from the desk.” It means something is not happening. It doesn’t mean you’re blocked. I don’t think writer’s block is real. I think it’s the mythos of capitalism — that you’re always supposed to be producing; this anxiety of being productive and quantifying your self-worth through page counts and word counts. So I said, “You’re working, but you have to work differently now. Now you have to work with your body. Maybe there’s questions you’re not asking. Maybe you have to recite this poem and walk with it.” And so, to me, this is actually more available to us as a species — this is what we’ve always been doing. We’ve been telling stories as we walked. We’ve been telling stories as we work, side by side.
Ocean Vuongresponding to a audience member's question at On Being with Krista Tippett. Ocean Vuong: A Life Worthy of Our Breath
Also: https://desperadophilosophy.net/2020/07/31/words-into-being/
Source: onbeing.org