"I don't know how to make poems.
I don't consider myself a poet and I don't particularly locate poetry in
poems, nor am I the first to say it. Poetry - as transport, invention
or music - is always an imponderable that can be found in any genre, a
sudden widening of the world... [It] is a gift of nature, a grace, not
a piece of labor. The very ambition to make a poem is enough to kill
it. " - Henri Michaux
These pages are a series of interconnected poems that I have written over the past four years, and they represent a journey. I've never kept any kind of journal or diary. There is no concrete record of the major events in my life. Instead, I write poetry. Some of these I like. Others I don't. They all reflect a period of time, or a major event, a person, a feeling, something that captured a moment for me. Everything from the abstract to the bluntly direct. A scrapbook of words... Many of these are about my battle against clinical depression. I am doing well right now, thank you for asking. <g> Please don't send me the name of your psychiatrist. :) Disclaimers and various bits of influence - page 1 - the poem in the parenthesis
(and into the hollow waves...) is from Marina Tsvetayeva's beautiful "Poem
of the End"
page 2 - "i can't go / you said
so" is another Tori lyric (I *do* listen to more than just Tori, I promise)
page 3 - "Walk between dark and
dark..." is a bit of poetry from Robert Graves. I really like Robert
Graves.
page 4 - "and hour ago..." and "the strangeness of before and after" are both lines from AS Byatt's "Possession" (page 516, if anyone's really interested). page 5 - "I'll make weapons out
of my imperfections" is a Tool quote out of the "Undertow" linear notes.
page 6 - is "hidden" because of
how ancient those poems seem. They were written during the full bloom
of my naiveté (AKA high school) and are included to illustrate evolution.
...and everything else is mine <bg> oh, and poems with an * (if you didn't get this already) are personal favorites, for one reason or another, or - to be more specific - poems that I actually like. I have a like/hate relationship with most of what I write. please don't ask what compelled me to put this together. I really don't know. I like the internet as a medium because it enables the merging of poetry with a visual aspect in a unique way, creating a completely new kind of presentation. I would be thrilled to answer any comments or questions you might have at - promise64@hotmail.com |