12-29-2011, 05:00 PM
"stand before the mirror and you, knives sheathed,
try to suture my skin to my bloodied clothes,
not realising that it is not wholeness I desire,
but fragmented honesty"
This stanza is very good. It kind of reminds me of some Sufi writings...that were not Rumi
It has been awhile since I had anyone try and fix me, or worse yet, try and defend me. Ugh! It feels like being slimed. It is amazing that even people who claim to be poets think that everything one writes is in first person personal.
I used to struggle with the explanation, but even more so with the "Where does your inspiration come from?" questions. "OH I get mine at Walmart in the housewares section, if I go on Monday they are usually running a half off sale. Sweet!" Actually, it would have once been asking me where does breath come from.
The problem that art, being inspired is also irrational, or mad as they use to call it, and explanations are rational. So there is always this sort of serve one master kind of dichotomy, and when I was younger it was difficult to transition from one to the other and so I would feel a lot of irritation and indignation when they asked such stuff. Then later on, if sometimes I did answer, I felt like I had been used in some shameful way. Lately, I think I have started to settle into the solution for it, but poetry is such a personal process, especially in the beginning, it is difficult, if not impossible to find a balance I think.
Not that it wasn't a nice image, but for me a confusing image:
"try to imagine your view
through that close woven canvas you wear
as your gray-shadowed sleeve"
I just kept seeing a burqa in this description and it tended to color the rest of the poem.
It is good that you gave a little heads up on this, cause I don't think I would have ever gotten there, as that first stanza skewed me the wrong way!
Dale
try to suture my skin to my bloodied clothes,
not realising that it is not wholeness I desire,
but fragmented honesty"
This stanza is very good. It kind of reminds me of some Sufi writings...that were not Rumi
It has been awhile since I had anyone try and fix me, or worse yet, try and defend me. Ugh! It feels like being slimed. It is amazing that even people who claim to be poets think that everything one writes is in first person personal. I used to struggle with the explanation, but even more so with the "Where does your inspiration come from?" questions. "OH I get mine at Walmart in the housewares section, if I go on Monday they are usually running a half off sale. Sweet!" Actually, it would have once been asking me where does breath come from.
The problem that art, being inspired is also irrational, or mad as they use to call it, and explanations are rational. So there is always this sort of serve one master kind of dichotomy, and when I was younger it was difficult to transition from one to the other and so I would feel a lot of irritation and indignation when they asked such stuff. Then later on, if sometimes I did answer, I felt like I had been used in some shameful way. Lately, I think I have started to settle into the solution for it, but poetry is such a personal process, especially in the beginning, it is difficult, if not impossible to find a balance I think.
Not that it wasn't a nice image, but for me a confusing image:
"try to imagine your view
through that close woven canvas you wear
as your gray-shadowed sleeve"
I just kept seeing a burqa in this description and it tended to color the rest of the poem.
It is good that you gave a little heads up on this, cause I don't think I would have ever gotten there, as that first stanza skewed me the wrong way!
Dale
How long after picking up the brush, the first masterpiece?
The goal is not to obfuscate that which is clear, but make clear that which isn't.
The goal is not to obfuscate that which is clear, but make clear that which isn't.