Poetry For Fridays
While some blogs have taken to posting photos on Fridays (Joe Thorn and sometimes Steve McCoy), I would like to (probably randomly) start posting poems. I have always been fascinated with poetry and I’ve gone through various phases of trying to write it.
Poetry seems to me to be playing jazz with words. While jazz is about exploration, as much about the process as the destination, the use of notes in unexpected ways and combinations, poetry is the lyrical equivalent, playing with the combination and flow of words in unexpected ways. It takes the art of communication and injects life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Poetry is often, though not always, the process of trying to convey the most emotional content in the fewest words possible. It’s about imagery and the way words relate to life.
I’ve heard it said that every pastor is (or ought to be) a poet because his life is spent using words. Of all those who ought to understand and utilize the passion of communication, shouldn’t those with the most passionate message cling to the power of poetry the most? I’m by no means saying that I accopmlish this, but it is certainly one of my goals: not just to communicate the truth but to do so poetically.
With all of this and more in mind, I’d like to simply post a poem each Friday for your feedback. Sometimes they will be by me and sometimes not, it just depends on the day and the mood. Today’s is by me, so join me for Poetry Fridays:
04/07/97 (For Wallace Stevens)
“squiggles like saxophones” to
swim through the jazz and
breathe in the life and
drown in the poetry, the
supreme fiction and
Pain(t) the truth
but relative truth
all things and no ideas
but the idea in the end,
the idea is the thing
Brent,
You are way to “artsy” to have lived in Kentucky for any amount of time.
Here the Dead Poets Society remains dead.
But, I appreciate your attempt at resurrecting the poetic spirit that lies within the hearts of Kentuckians.
I don’t know man, haven’t you ever been over on Bardstown Road there in Louisville? I’m not artsy enough for that part of town!
Yeah, you’re right. The closer I got to Electric Ladyland and Ear-X-Tacy, the more I felt like I was ready to paint or draw or sing or write.