Saturday, November 25, 2017

Poetry that Matters


Here's someone's take on poetry making -- making it matter.  Tom Keene recently gave the Sunday morning talk at the UU church I attend here.  I especially liked this poem, so he sent it for us to share as well as anything from his website:  http://www.tomkeeneandthemuse.com.



Poetry that Matters
 
First, grasp the facts of whatever is
as to cut through and under mere appearance
and any consensus to deny.
 
Next, speak, write, whisper, shout
their untold-ring-true meanings.
 
Then, put these forth
like a fisherman’s bait
to hook the guts of any who listen,
enflame the passion of those who can hear.
 
Rouse them to rise
out of pretense into planting themselves,
put down roots, send up branches, bear fruit.
 
Tom Keene
November 10, 2017


San Antonio poet Tom Keene. 


Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Carol Youmans sent a poem after she left

About Poetry Making

When I picked up my pen,
I thought about reading to 34 earnest ears
Circled in a room
(If Jeannie forgot to come)
And I missed them so much
That I picked up the phone instead
And called a friend
I haven't talked to
in months.
                            Carol Youmans

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

a poem from Polish poet Tadeusz Rózewicz

poetry doesn't always
take the form
of a poem

after fifty years
of writing
poetry
may appear
to the poet
in the shape of a tree
a bird
flying away
light
it takes the shape
of lips
it nests in their silence

or it lives in a poem
devoid of form and content

                          Oct. 13, 1988


So  this is in line with an earlier question, whether or not a poem can exist without words.  I think.  Found a collection, Sobbing Superpower: selected poems of Tadeusz Rózewicz, in our coffeeshop down here this morning.     (posting from Texas, Sylvia Manning)