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Beyond Vertigo Poetry and Visual Art By Eileen McCabe |
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Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body." Walt Whitman, from the introduction to Leaves of Grass, 1855 edition Walt knew. In his very essence, he knew that we do not choose to write poetry. To write is to breathe. To not write, is to suffocate, to strangle, to wither, ultimately to die within. Breathe with me. Share your work, send me links to other poets, tell me about cool venues for spoken word. I'll be posting the text of my poetry, and as opportunity arises, audio and video files of performances. I'll pass on news of cool poets I hear and see, and performance venues and workshops. I'm still working on the photographic technology for posting collage work, but I'll get there. The name of this site comes from a dream I had a few years back. After suffering from acute clinical depression for years, I finally sought medical help. In retrospect, I can see that the onset was with adolescence, and the first sign was of suddenly being afraid of heights. As the years went on, and the depression progressed, I started convincing myself that I was so appallingly bad at different creative endeavors, that I started giving them up. First drawing, then music, then costume design and construction. I actually feared attempting anything creative without a complete plan, preferably someone else's. After starting treatment, I had a dream that I was standing on the railing of our back porch, about 15 feet up, with outstretched arms, looking down without fear. I wrote this: Beyond VertigoBeyond time and encumbrance Poetry was a new adventure, but my music and visual art are coming back. Step by step, I'm remembering and reclaiming my creative life. |
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