Walt Whitman -a poetic thought.

I have just found this lovely quote by Walt Whitman:

“To have great poets, there must be great audiences too. Walt Whitman”

One wonders if we have bigger audiences for poetry than in Whitmans day? I suspect that we have bigger audiences but many more poets! (not all of them great).

May 2013 be a year of good poetry read, written and appreciated.

The Source of Poetry

I found this profound quote by Yeats today:

“Of our conflicts with others we make rhetoric; of our conflicts with ourselves we make poetry. William Butler Yeats”

It is often the turmoil in my mind that comes out in my poetry. Poetry crystallizes human experience.

Christmas is Over

Christmas is gone
Just like the Mayan calendar.
For once peace reigned
an oasis in a desert of contention.

And now it's time
to face up to a new year.
Resolutions to be made
check out the broken resolutions
and goals of 2012.

A new year
brings new hope.
A chance to reinvent
one's self.

Hope and optimism reign
in the face of experience and reality.

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Vagabond Poetry

Jack Micheline a well known vagabond poet in outlaw circles had this to say related to vagabond poetry:

Being an outlaw meant that the "academy" would ignore him; his work would not be readily available, he wouldn't be anthologized, he wouldn't be taught in schools. Any success he had would be through the pure strength of his work and would be disseminated by small publishing houses or through self publication efforts.

For most parts he was helping to define a new poetry canon.

Here is one of his poems,

Beauty is Everywhere Baudelaire

Beauty is everywhere Baudelaire
Even a worm is beautiful
The thread of a beggar's dress
The red eye of a drunkard
On a rainy night
Chasing the red haired girl
Baudelaire across the sky
Your raggy pants
Laughing in the rain
Beauty is everywhere Baudelaire.





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Year End or Mayan World end?

The last day of work is finished
For 2012 whilst 2013
Lumbers to the starting line.

Another year gone of
Success and failure,
Frustration and release.

Next year will be good
As long as the Mayan timekeepers
Have it wrong.

Charles Bukowski on Sex

Sex is interesting, but it's not totally important. I mean it's not even as important (physically) as excretion. A man can go seventy years without a piece of ass, but he can die in a week without a bowel movement. by Charles Bukowski

The Poets elemental mind in action. I think theres a poem in that quote.

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A Lovely Quote about Poetry

Poetry is not only dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives. It lays the foundations for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been before.

Audre Lorde

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Xmas is xrass

Xmas time of goodwill
And cheer to all
Unless you are poor
Maimed, disabled
Or lacking in
Social graces.

So Xrass is the
Xmas commercial
Bonanza
That reaps riches for the merchants
And fights, misery, suicide
And loneliness
To the great unloved.

Xmas is Xristless
He would wonder what
We are doing...
Even St Nicholas would
Be disappointed.

Tired

Tired as...
At first the affinity
With the road
and The journey
Energized me.

But hour after hour
The sharp edge
Dulls
And the monotony
Of the ribboned roads
Kicks in.

8 hours driving
tires the brain
And body too...
Why did the dogs
Choose this morning
To invade the bedroom?

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The Manifest Reality of Poetry

There is nothing that can not be covered in a poem. The poem can take you into the future or the past, it can be written from myriads of points of view. You can be whatever you desire to be. This freedom gives the poet much room to move.

I find that reflecting on experiences in a poem, allow me to capture the essence of my daily life. In that way I can use my blog as a journal of my life.

iPhone Poetry

I have found a new tool for my poetry - my iPhone. I have a mobile version of Blogger and I can write a poem whenever I feel like it. I can also take photos of places or people I have seen that I want to write about. I guess it replaces my writers notebook. My recent poems related to the bookshop and Te Papa were both composed on my iPhone. Give it a try, it allows for immediacy.


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Found at Te Papa

This poem is constructed from the signs on art works at Te Papa, the Museum of New Zealand.

Paintings for people to walk by
A New Zealand Art 1920s-1960s
He toi hou no Aotearoa.
Bold Pioneer,
Colin McCahon
Outsider influence.

A vision of sanity
An individual interpretation
A born sculptor
Delwyn Moru (born 1939)
Returning the gaze,
Appropriate? E Tika Ana?
The art of photography,
Untitled,
Don Peebles
Rudolf Gopas
Abstracting the landscape,
Graham Sydney
Rozzie at Pisa
Egg tempera on board
Reading Room.


This was an interesting experience to see the juxtaposition of labelled elements that obviously had been curated. It made me think about the cross over of art, poetry and the lived life. I think I have been influenced by O'Haras Lunch Poems.

Poetry as play

To me writing poetry is fun and has a significant element of play. Words are like clay, something to be shaped by the poets hands. Words are wonderful and manifold and available in so many languages and contexts.



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In a Bookshop

Sheer Height
The Last Human
Cannonball

Queens
Queen Mothers
Priestesses

And Lovely Power
Shoulder to shoulder
In the bookshop.

Books of all kinds poesy
And not
Eve was framed.

Camera Culture
Crowded together
Discriminate or not

Shelf fellows
By Chance
And not by choice.

Summary
This poem is written from found elements that I can observe from my comfortable seat in the bookshop situated in Wellington, New Zealand. I love books and bookshops.

I Do

I do, you know
I really do...
I do it well
I do it often
And now I'll do it more
just for you
for you.



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