Catch it in the air

Been a long time between last post and this one. I always go back and forth about posting/not posting/what to include/what is simply silly. So the blog was paralyzed.

Been poking around in a book called Maps of the Imagination: the Writer as Cartographer by Peter Turchi. Interesting moment from it:

Having 'the technique' -- the means, or the ability, to get from here to there -- is always, and has always been, the issue. The need to find methods of expression led to speech, to drawing, to maps ("Here's how you get there"), and to writing. (18)

Although it seems that technique is so one-way in the statement there, i.e., vision precedes the technique or "I have something I see" precedes bending the technique to manifest that vision, don't worry. He acknowledges that the vision of the artist can emerge from the exploration, too. But it's perhaps a useful statement of what craft, maybe, is, in terms of poetry?

More importantly, what would "craft" entail with poetry? Being able to type? Being able to make associational leaps that still manage to be logical? To mind the gap on the right side of the page? To create a context around a given work for others to enjoy? To create a metaphor, a map, a journey?