On labels

Labels inevitably fracture as they try to capture reality.

On literary theory

To me, all literary or critical theories are like the notions the blind men have of the best way to investigate the elephant: each can be useful in its way, but none will reveal the beast in its entirety.

It is harder

It is harder to begin than it is to be.

First Literary Review-East

I am pleased to note that my poem "Only This 2" has now been published by First Literary Review-East in their January/February 2024 online issue. They've been publishing poetry for 14 years, and I'm gratified to see my poem there.

New poems

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The ideal subject of totalitarian rule (Arendt)

The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (standards of thought) no longer exist.

Hannah Arendt

Most was lost

I am made of just a fraction of my experience. Most was lost, at least to me.

The culture

The culture will outlast the capital.

The project of the 21st century

The project of the 21st century
has been to redefine everything negatively.

Getting a job

Getting a job is a worse job than most jobs.

Immaculate

The imminent is immaculate.

Need not

Cleverness and honesty need not conflict.

The part I want to part from

The part I want to part from is the part that doesn't impart.

New poems

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Reciprocal

Reciprocal does not imply transactional.

Inertia

Inertia becomes distortion in an environment of motion.

Everything is a trigger

Everything is a trigger that triggers other triggers.

Frightening ideas (Cage)

I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.

John Cage

For failing to try

One cannot atone for failing to try to atone.

How we are penalized

How we are penalized for not caring about everything.

Spirituality

Spirituality is an integrity problem.

Thought

Thought is all I require of the supernatural.

The tragedy

The tragedy is believing that you are capable of distinguishing comedy from tragedy.

Desire is

Desire is the friction that enflames existence.

An aggregate

Matter is an aggregate of overlapping gaps.

New poems

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Poetry

Poetry is gloriously indulgent, and must remain so.

What would I do

What would I do with the words I don't have?

The shortest route

The shortest route between any two points is the one undertaken with inattention.

Patterns that are not there Niebauer

By seeing patterns that are not there, the mind creates stories that aren't true...

Chris Niebauer

What poetry is

I am concerned with what poetry is—you worry about what it isn't.

That which must end

That which must end never truly begins.

Definitions

A dictionary is genius; a library, divine.

Description

Description describes the describer.

Precarious

The precocious is precarious.

What if

What if ascension were just a matter of definition?

The most childish myth

Resurrection is the most childish myth.

Narrative

Narrative is coercive.

Sometimes

Sometimes the value lies
in not looking for the value.

I would rather be

I would rather be right than polite.

No Knead Bread

The best bread I've made so far, from this recipe.

As the sky

As the sky moves as wind, I move as mind.

Reading

Reading: For those who want more intimacy than sex can provide.

Not enough

It is not enough for people to see us; we want them to see where we have been.

At anything

Most people don't look at anything closely enough to understand poetry.

New poems

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The fairy tale

The fairy tale is the story that tells you that when you set out from home seeking something, you will find it.

Problems

Morale problems lead to morality problems.

Writing poetry

Writing poetry feels more like love
than anything that isn't love.

Indistinguishable from

To become indistinguishable from is to be extinguished.

The biggest misconception

The biggest misconception of childhood is that the net sum of the changes to come will be positive.

Never nearer

You are never nearer the truth than when you proclaim a false thing true, only you are standing with your back to it.

Not the only one

The first one to get to truth is not the only one who can swear fealty to it.

Guilt does not accrue

Guilt does not accrue from harmless actions.

Improvement

Improvement can be a kind of erosion.

New poems

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A journey

A journey always seems quicker coming back because we are doing so much less work assessing the degree to which reality is going to accommodate expectation.

The truth

The truth is never exaggerated or understated.

I am a poet

I am a poet of the first instant and the last, and of all that separates them.

How worthy of contempt

How worthy of contempt, those who look for truth only in one place. And yet how much better than those who don't look at all!

Or to imagine

But is our purpose to do or to imagine doing?

What you get

What you get from what you get will depend upon what you lacked.

Calamitous and idiotic (Wright)

According to the current way of thinking (or not-thinking), it seems that if we are to enjoy anything then we must not have to think about it, and, conversely, if we are to think about anything, then we mustn't enjoy it. This is a calamitous and idiotic division of functions.

Barbara Wright

Deluded

All the wicked are deluded; so too are many of the good.

A souvenir

Each lyric is a souvenir (I almost wrote relic) of an old life expressed in terms intelligible to a new life.

Much

Much abuse is consensual.

On labels

I don't appreciate or affiliate with labels. If you feel you absolutely must, write "Uncategorized" on mine.

New poems

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Vandals

Vandals are the ones I like least.

Nothing is inevitable

Nothing is inevitable if you look back far enough into its antecedents.

Our favorite lie

Our favorite lie is that we are responsible for things.

On heaven

Heaven isn't heaven if it doesn't love me.

The only thing

The only thing more general than a generality is a specificity.

The modern condition

The modern condition is complicity.

A poem

A poem is a collation of disparate provocations.

A journey

Life is a journey from hope to grief.

Years

So much of what you're told when you're young is plausible, so it takes years to sort out the true from the false.

The writer's task (Ballard)

The fiction is already there. The writer’s task is to invent the reality.

J. G. Ballard

It takes generosity

It takes generosity to write a poem,
and generosity to read one.

Bullshit

Bullshit, like so much else, seems to respond to supply-and-demand.

On nationalism

Nationalism is always, always toxic.

Poetry laughs

Poetry laughs with language
at those who laugh at language.

Time honors

Time honors nothing.

More say

Under capitalism we get more say
in how we will enrich the overclass.

Do we suffer more

Do we suffer more for our flaws and failures or for our ethical commitments?

Poems per year

*based on an idea by Art Stewart

New poems

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Quick 2023 Summation

Books Read:  105
Poems Written:  1355

Very pleased with these numbers, obviously. Record number of poems written for a year. I started submitting poems again and got a few accepted/published, and I had two books of poetry published. This year will be hard to match again.