the metaphor here is really nicely & concisely developed, and this is just
brief enough to have its personal tint speak meaningfully enough. the voice
is beautifully real and the insights unrushed.
a personal, slightly alarmingly confessional poem I've been working on is
already in its seventh stanza; took a Beat and cooked it, and I hope the
length of the boil doesn't diminish the effect of the 'I'. this poem of
yours reminds me of what I've been thinking lately, about poetry: how much
more fun it would be to write not like X or like Y, or only poems of a
certain style or length, but to vary the form endlessly from long freeverse
to minimalism to sonnets to visual poetry &c. from poem to poem. and why
not? form should echo content, after all.
also I'm a sucker for titling a poem a line in the poem itself.
KS
On 23 April 2010 10:21, andrew burke <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Some one asked for an article about poetics, so I thought about it for
> a moment, looked out the window and wrote this. As usual, all comments
> welcome.
>
> Making Bloom while the Sun Shines (title)
>
>
>
> Which skins enriched the earth
> before carrot shavings and potato peelings?
> I wouldn’t have written those lines
> before I’d read James Tate; wouldn’t
> have accepted it as poetry before
> Ted Berrigan and maybe Ken Bolton.
> Through the concrete driveway
> a thistle fights for light, in
> a solar-powered syntax
> reminiscent of Roethke. I’m not
> ashamed of my past, body
> flaking daily, skin lining my poems.
> Others prefer no ‘I’ in their poetry.
> Let them read Ogden Nash. Once again
> I’ve been wondering what poetry is,
> what it’s made of, and who called
> it that in the first place. The bottle brush
> is happy now, head above parapet,
> making bloom while the sun shines.
> That’s how it is, the individual
> utterance in the tribal context.
> ‘Take care,’ your mother said;
> ‘Take risks,’ the writer wrote.
>
>
>
>
> Andrew
> http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
> 'Mother Waits for Father Late' republished available at
> http://www.picaropress.com/
> http://frankshome.org/AndrewBurke.html
>
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