Poetry Forum

Well, they do for me, so we agree about that much anyway. What I meant was that I don't ever try to write for my contemporaries, I just try to write what I personally like. That may not be in sync with what anyone else likes, or it may be that I can't achieve what I'm trying to achieve, or it may be...

I don't think there is such a thing as a "contemporary reader" as opposed to just a reader. I'd rather try to write something that could speak to a person from any time rather than just this time we happen to live in. Clearly you don't think I've succeeded in that, but that's neither here ...

Well no, I don't think it's one of my best. My argument isn't really in defense of my own poem or an attempt to force anyone to like it. But I do see a tendency on this forum to present an attitude to poetry that I see as being antithetical to the spirit of just about all pre-modern poetry, as if th...

Thinking I missed the mark is fine with me- I've never known two people to think exactly the same thing about a poem anyway. But to dislike it because it's "sentimental" or "not original" represents an aesthetic philosophy I strongly disagree with.

RE: "Does the ocean breathe?"

Do poets use figurative language? I would have thought the connection between breathing and the ebb and flow of the tide would not be such a stretch.

I think there's way too much pomp and intellect in contemporary poetry. The ordinary human emotions, which everyone has felt since the dawn of time, are shied away from as "sentiment." It's as if the poets are scared to feel their own emotions for fear of being seen as silly or melodramati...

Possessing Nothing Possessing nothing, least of all This small, new, unlearned life. I hold your chin against my shoulder. Outside, all the night Is turning, changing, gaining color, As the dawn appears. I breathe as slowly as the ocean, Calming all your fears. Possessing nothing, I am certain You ...

Was this a triversum (I think that's the word)?

I like this one. Wry humor at the end.

The color you're describing is my favorite color in the world. I have no idea what it's called. As for the poem, I thought some of the images were evocative but felt there was a little too much discussion. If the goal is to talk about (or around) the ineffable, perhaps only a single powerful line sh...

So the storm actually hauled his wife outside and drowned her? That's one heck of a wind!

I am addressing the sea as it should have been, not as it is...

'Quiet trenches" as in the deep ocean trenches- drinking too much bourbon has an effect similar to diving into the deepest parts of the ocean with no guarantee you'll make it back. Not that I make a habit of it...

Maker's Mark- at least that's what it tastes like to me.

The Greeks called you the wine-dark ocean, But I would prefer you in amber Like a sea of bourbon. The sharks that Swam through your quiet trenches would know The interplay of light and shade In a honey-colored nothingness, And a burnt charcoal aftertaste like The ghost of memory- something to Be sav...

Buddhist monasteries in Tibet, China and Japan all maintained armed militias of fighting monks at different points in history. As owners of large land-holdings they had both property to protect and political connections that drew them into conflict. These conflicts weren't ordinarily about religion,...

A tiresome, fanatical rant is a tiresome, fanatical rant whether it's theist or atheist.

This makes me think of one of the charming Taoist fables by Issai Chozanshi. He's always portraying different creatures like cicadas and rats and caterpillars trying to compare themselves to each other, each using his own existence as a yardstick to judge others by.

Good writing is ultimately about insight- all the technical aspects are just tools to help convey that insight effectively. It's not possible to have an insight about something you dismiss out of hand. Even if you condemn something in the strongest possible terms, the condemnation will carry no weig...

Honestly, I prefer the comments by people who just didn't like it. Sorry I let the crusade down...

McGonagall? Really? I think someone's getting carried away here.

This makes me think of Baudelaire's "Carrion" in terms of what you're saying, but his morbid images carry a cynical message whereas yours don't. Sometimes I think about how, when I am dead, life will just continue to manifest in the very same spot and there will be more of a continuity tha...

I'm comfortable with the idea of this poem as more of an epic panegyric than a psychological insight. And nothing anyone says here will be construed as disrespectful to my father's memory- all characters in poems are fictional even when they're not. The thing is, if you'd known him, he really was la...

Well, you can try to convert me then, and I'll try to convert you. It's on!

"And that there's rather too much Fight the Good Fight and when the Race is Run for my liking. That's not me objecting to the language, so much as the overblown sentiment." That's part of what I meant by the "smallness" of the modern approach to life. You're not supposed to think...

It's a question of perspective. Yes, we all sing our portion of the truth, and in that sense truth is not "one."But if you're trying to tell the truth about a particular thing such as a relationship and its history, you can't do it by sugarcoating or leaving out the hard parts. In that sen...