|
HOME
About
Me
What's New
Text
of Poems
Mentors and
Muses
Venues
Contact
Merchandise
|
"This
is What You Shall Do:
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
Vertigo
Beyond time
and encumbrance
Crucified to dreams
Resurrected and
airborne
Beyond vertigo
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.
|
|
