Fishing For Poems
I was asked, what is poetry like? Perhaps like the northern flicker riffling the rim of the path, probing into the wood-chipped, damp earth for a morsel to maintain its spirit. No, it’s like fishing. You set up your intentions on the bank of the brown page and cast off into the current of images and ideas. then wait for inspiration to nibble your bait, sink the float and the poem bites. Now the real struggle begins: wrestling with imagery, trying to land the wriggling language on the bank of verses. Out of the plopping water flops the first draft. Disappointingly underdeveloped. Poets never exaggerate the catch. A poem is always ‘this’ big, often smaller, a tiddler in the powerful play, but still something to contribute to Whitman’s waters. Always Hoping To Write a Great Poem Often the keyboard is sterile. I stare out of the window and watch the trees. Maybe something no one has ever said about trees. Forget the clouds, too obvious. The blue sky, yawn. Birds bouncing around, little Buddha’s not having to worry about creation. I hear the song of a hundred ghostly ideas ganging up behind me, giggling. I sense the almost complete emptiness inside every atom. Ideas like electronics zip around, all potential, waves of hope. I feel the bonding of a basic shape. But as I write, it wriggles and flitters out of my mind. I grab, but it is gone. Just the scent and shadow, a fear I will never know the elements to turn leaden words into gold. Published on 09/21/22 in Sparks of Calliope.
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Poetry Biography:I have had over 70 poems published in the following worldwide magazines and literary journals: A Handful of Stones, Acta Victoriana (Canada), All the Sins (UK), The Amethyst Review (USA), Amsterdam Quarterly (NL) The Blue Nib (Ireland), Bolts of Silk, Borderless Journal, The Brasilia Review (Brazil), Bushfire Literature & Arts Review (US), Cadenza, Cake Magazine, Carillon, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal (Hong Kong), DASH (USA), Clackamas Literary Review (USA), Cooch Behar Anthology, Dawntreader, Dreamcatcher, The Dillydoun Review, Earth Love, The Ear (US), Eastlit (East Asia), Erbacce, Envoi, Finger Dance Festival, Ginosko, Gloom Cupboard, Hidden Channel, Inlandia Journal, IS&T (Ink, Sweat & Tears), Into the Void (Canada), The Journal, The Lakeview Journal (India), Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Lunch Ticket (USA) The New Writer, One Hand Clapping, Orbis, Oregon English Journal (USA), The Passage Between, Prole, Sentinel Literary Quarterly, Sonic Boom (India), Third Wednesday (USA), Of Nepalese Clay (Nepal), New Contrast (South Africa), One Hand Clapping, Opportunity Publishing, The Oregon English Journal (USA) Origami Poems Project (USA), The Paddock Review (USA), Panoplyzine (USA), Paper Swan Press, The Passage Between, The Peacock Journal (USA), Pens on Fire, Poetry Salzburg (Austria), Potomac Review, (USA) Prole, Pulsar Poetry, Rear View Poetry, Queen Mob's Teahouse, Qutub Minar Review (India), Red Ink, Shiela-Na-Gig (USA), South Bank Poetry Magazine, Stand, Waterford Teachers Centre, (Ireland) We Are a Website New Literary Journal (Singapore), Weber - The Contemporary West Review (USA), Windfall (USA), Writing Magazine, Words for the Wild and Verbal Art (India). Archives
March 2024
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