Mark Weiss wrote:
> On the other hand, unless one takes no chances at all one writes a lot
> of crap. Best to toss the stuff that won't quite work and get on with it.
>
> Mark
To augment: one probably writes lots of crap on the way to a real poem.
The good part of the Snapshots project for me has been to force me to
write anything most weeks, just to get it down. Some have worked. The
majority--not so humble opinion--are words or concepts in search of
poetry, of focus. Focus. Focus. Paring and focus. Does anything
think I meant paring TO focus?
I am stunned by a Christmas present I just received by mail via Spring
Church Books--The Mystery of Max Schmitt: Poems on the Life and Work of
Thomas Eakins. It appears to be an entire book on Eakins seen through a
persona. The author is Philip Dacey, who I knew briefly 10 years ago
and have since forgotten I knew. Now I am reminded. I have not had
this feeling in a long time: I want to write like this guy. I want to
imitate him and steal his style. I haven't Giftness Envy in years.
Found Sonnet: Thomas Eakins on Painting
Before you paint the sitter, paint the chair.
Get things as they are. Make a fat man fat.
Why should we copy Greeks? They copied nature.
The hand shaped right tells how to shape the foot.
Make it better or worse--never compromise.
Take an egg, or paper, and paint that shade of white.
Good pictures tell you what o'clock it is.
Remember, you're a portraitist of light.
An outline of a man is not a man.
Study math. Know bones. Don't paint when tired.
Devils sometimes live in colors. Facts and
vision. To paint the male or female nude,
first attempt a boat running with full sails.
Respectability in art appals.
I have been assured by my friend, who is close with Dacey, that the
bones are there. Only by the time you see the finished work, by the
time he's finished the boat, all you see is the nude.
Ken
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Kenneth Wolman www.kenwolman.com kenwolman.blogspot.com
39. Not observing the imperfections of others, preserving silence and a continual communion with God will eradicate great imperfections from the
soul and make it the possessor of great virtues.
--St. John of the Cross, Maxims on Love (The Minor Works)
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