poetry virus.

Susana Gardner tagged me

thePOETRYmeme...

the first poem I remember reading was:

tons of poems from Shel Silverstein's Where The Sidewalk Ends. my sister and i would flip through the book reading poems aloud trying to out gross each other. and it's such a cliche but Silverstein was a revelation to me as a small kid.

I was forced to memorize numerous poems in school and:

i got over. the teacher never specified length or period so i chose WCW's This Is Just To Say. she laughed and passed me.


My first 'publication' was: a letter to the editor of a skate magazine. i was 15 and high on Jim Morrison. the letter was about the price of skate parts (too much!), religion and sex. they published it and made fun of me. first poetry published was in Diablo Valley College's literary Magazine Magnum Opus. they published three poems, one of them being a poem called Beets And Gasoline. I misspelled "Beets" as "Beats" which relegated the poem to the "Urban Art" section.

here's another poem they published in their "General Art Section" (i wrote the poem while walking through the John Cage show at the Legion Of Honor. i was probably 19 or 20)

Untitled

Score for 17 drawings
of Thoreau
OK to print.
Trial proof.
Parch Surface.
Crown Point
Press. Oakland 78'.
"It is a bubble
on the surface
which straight away
bursts."
Scrap copper.
Press bed
editing.
Veil of plate.
Hardwood.
Italian paper.
Reverb engraving.
(Where R equals
Ryoanji.)
Rock Garden
indicated within.
Drypoint on
frame; antique.
Soft jute,
subject to
chance.
Felt, batting in
green.
Claimed from nature.
Weathered panels
at first balcony
level.
Twin rocker paper
branded,
circles meaning
stained panel.
Mauve without
horizon borrowing
in the corner.

I read poetry because:

i'm pretty compulsive. lately i haven't been able to get through any poetry books exceeding 30 pages. since Naropa (since thesis!) i've been on a pretty steady diet of chapbooks, comics, lit journals and nonfiction. i've been trudging through Alice Notley's Mysteries of Small Houses since August, i can't seem to make a dent in that book. on the other hand i'm burning through nonfiction. in the last couple weeks finished Stephen King's On Writing A Memoir On The Craft (don't ask...short explanation, it has to do with The Order, did i mention i'm compulsive?) Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential, and am now cutting my way through David Sedaris's Naked.

A poem I'm likely to think about when asked about a favorite poem is:

Benjamin Hollander's Vigilance (DETECTIVE POETRY!), Michael Palmer's Sun (ANALYTIC LYRIC POETRY!), S.T.C.'s The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner (SEAFARER POETRY!), George Seferis's Thrush (DISASTER POETRY), William Blake's Major Prophecies (MYSTICAL MENAGERIE POETRY!). i guess i have a sort of Lord Of The Rings view of poetry. i'm into quest-poetry (Quepo?).

My experience with reading poetry differs from my experience with reading other types of literature:

i agree. all my other reading, predominately graphic novels (comix), prose (news, science fiction, poetics, biography) goes into the poetry. i seem to binge-read for half the year, then purge-write for the other half of the year. right now i'm in the binge-reading stage. i wish i was working on my book The Islands but i can't even look at the thing right now.

I find poetry frustrating:

when it's the only thing poet's know how to talk about at parties. if you think i'm talking about you i'm probably not. the people who i'm talking about don't read this blog.

I think poetry is: just like Dungeons & Dragons with more cute girls.

i tag my brother James, i tag Spank Rock, i tag my Theo Peter, i tag Dose One, i tag the self portrait version of me