My next written post (audio going up Friday for the 4th) is supposed to be either political poems or bird poems. I don't know if you're aware but Rattle is doing this thing where they publish a poem every Sunday in which a poet responds to a current event...that occurred within the last week. I think this raises several questions, the biggest for me being "Is a week-r-less really long enough to produce a great poem on a given subject matter?" I am not sure how I feel about political poems. I can't write them, I know that.
I'm afraid I have your friend beat. For me, literary writing should exist outside of the confines of its time and writing about something as topical as a headline from a particular week is ok, but its power and value should go beyond that easily forgotten germ. As for productivity vs. finesse, there needs to be a balance. Once you get into a productive mode, it's easy to keep rattling things off but I've often found that a pattern begins to emerge about what ideas I can't let go of during that time. After a while I just repeat myself and then I know that it's time to get down to the business of shaping and finishing (though I often don't). This balance is very much a part of what I'm after at the moment.