The BlueIris Semi-Nightly Poetry Break, 12/4/07

"But What I'm Trying To Say Mother Is"

You are barely able to walk,
sewn up between your legs, bleeding,
and slumped over from the weight
of six months of pregnancy,
although it is all over.
You wear your green chenile robe
and carry a picture of the dead child, the fifth one.
Mother, why don’t you stop looking at me?
Let me wash you, please.
And yes, I go to the cemetary.
I cry, I pray for his soul,
I pour milk on his grave,
and I do it because I loved you once, I did
and it was good.

—Ai

Awaken my heart , awaken,
Do not tremble for you will not be forsaken,
Truth will not forget you ,
Nor the ages forbid you
from sailing past the moon.

And if moonlight dares to pierce you,
remember it does not despise you,
it simply does not care ,
for bleeding hearts and broken masts,
of either friend or foe,
it only seeks to grow.


Sleep my heart , oh sleep,
lay down , forget how to weep.
After the stars and beyond the curtains,
no light shall dare,
to illuminate your wounds,
or tell of your despair.

~by me.

I read this as the poetry STREAK.

Have I got anything for you? No.

Did I force my juniors and seniors to create "found poems," William S. Burroughs style, over Chapter Eight of "All Quiet on the Western Front?" Yes, I did, and it was wonderful.

I saw stuff that was pretty good, one so good that I'm thinking of including it in an article I'm writing, a lot of stuff that was mediocre in technique but was transcendent in soul, and the absolute worst poem I have ever read in my entire life -- even including Rod McKuen. Better yet, the kid writing the bad poem did so intentionally. One has to really understand poetry to write it badly on purpose, so I counted it as a success.

For instance, though I have absolutely no way of verifying this, I've heard that Dorothy Parker -- who wrote sonnets -- didn't particularly like Shakespeare.

Personally, anyone who's got balls enough to put their poetry for public consumption has, for me, what it takes. Except Rod. Not only do I not get it, but my parents were English teachers -- I was trained from a very early age to disrespect him :).