WORDS
LIKE BLOOD...
FLOWING THROUGH
THE ARTERY OF A
SENTENCE...
THE SOFT FLESHY
MEAT OF MEANING....
THE TISSUE...
THE GIST OF IT...
A MOVEMENT
IN TIME
CAPTURED ON
DIGITAL PAPER
IMMORTALIZED...
EXISTING IN
TIMELESSNESS
FOREVER....
WANDERING THE
UNIVERSE OF
WRITTEN WORDS
SEARCHING FOR
EYES
TO THROW ITSELF
INTO
A MIND TO
CONVEY ITSELF
TO....
WORDS...
THE ANATOMY
OF CONVERSATION
THE FRAMEWORK
OF THOUGHT
THE AFTER BIRTH
OF CONCEPT
BORN OUT OF
NEED TO
EXPRESS ITSELF
IN THE
ABSOLUTE
AND ABSTRACT
OF HUMAN
COMMUNICATION.........
Bobby Jameson Feb 1, 2010
The new semester just started yesterday, and my creative writing class has moved from narrative fiction (short stories and drama) to poetry. My first assignment is ten sentences that begin "Poetry is...."
ReplyDeleteI have collected about twenty examples of such sentences from the great writers and poets, including Coleridge, T. S. Eliot, Sandburg ("Poetry is the journal of a sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the sky), and Frost ("Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat").
Through the years my kids have come up with some brilliant statements of their own. In 1998 our magazine was called "Howls from the Wasteland" (my title was an obvious homage to Eliot and Ginsburg), and it included the following.
"Poetry is written by caterpillars waiting to be butterflies" —Erin Perez
"Poetry is the tale that every crack on an old woman's face has to tell" —Diana Rodriguez
"Poetry is like youth: it confuses some and delights others" —Michelle Galaz
"Poetry is thinner than this paper, but thicker than your own mind" —Ramon Michel
A few years ago, I modified the assignment to allow them to include "Life is..." and "Love is..." if they wish.
Now, I think I will share your poem with them, and allow them to include "Words are...."
As usual, thanks for the inspiration.
(By the way, those acetates are awesome!)
Tim
The previous comment was really interesting by tim mcmullen.
ReplyDeletein this piece. 'anatomy of a converstion', parsing every line, it is really the anatomy of a monologue explaining what makes the words divulge themselves to the reader. we are always trying to explain the thought process and the motivations for the words. i know i am, and here you are too. It's pretty interesting that every poet seems to want to make this explanation, and I wonder if anybody really listens. Peace, Bobby