IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN!

april is national poetry month and a damn fine excuse to read, write, think, and play with words, explore language, explore images, and get deep in the wrestling, rustling, torture that is ART. YAY!!! and i like to take advantage of april this way. LOVE, in fact! and so... prepare yourself! everyday, i'll be posting a poem here. sometimes one of my own. and i think i'll even commit some poems to memory this time around. it's been years since i've memorized a poem and april is a good month with which to practice commitment, fearlessness. poetry is very much engaged with risk. and also with the absurd. what better month is there to make an ass of yourself for the sake of getting closer to all those secret aspirations? :)

i think poetry is one of the best things on the planet. i really do. and it's everywhere. it is abundant and such a strange, painful, sharp form of beauty.

feel free, this entire month, to post anything poetry related in the comments section. feel free to email me if you want to discuss poetry and art/writing concerns. and PLEASE feel free to turn me on to your favorite poets and writers and artists. in fact I AM BEGGING YOU TO! i've said it so many times here that i think a painting and a poem are basically the same thing.

so lets kick off this poetry party with one of my all-time favorite poets, the undeniable Sharon Olds. in fact, this might be the poem i'll memorize.



THE UNBORN




Sometimes I can almost see, around our heads,
like gnats around a streetlight in summer,
the children we could have,
the glimmer of them.

Sometimes i feel them waiting, dozing
in some antechamber- servants, half-
listening for the bell.

Sometimes I see them lying like love letters
in the Dead Letter Office.

And sometimes, like tonight, by some black
second sight I can feel just one of them
standing on the edge of a cliff by the sea
in the dark, stretching its arms out
desperately to me.








(from Satan Says)