Ezra Pound - For or Against

There was a point in my poetry career when I had Ezra Pound hair.

Girls liked it...that is until I said....

"I have Ezra Pound hair."

Most people think his skill set was diminished by the fact that he held some odd prejudices, but Finley said....

"Ezra Pound was just F*****G crazy, and what poets can truly say they are not?"

Finley also went on to inform me.....

"Ezra Pound was the master of boiling topics down. He would write a poem and start off by removing letters, then words, and finally...paragraphs."

This advise, this method is making me a stronger writer, and I will admit...since I shaved the Ezra Pound hair, my modeling gigs have been cut in 1/2.

Have a good weekend y'all.
 

The Lazy Poet Test? (Do You Dare 2 Take It?)

Earlier today I asked Finley?

What are you going to write this weekend.

Mike sloshed a response around in his brain before answering......

"I dunno, maybe some prose."

Now I realize he is the Master, and I am the servant, but I have to tell you guys something.......

I've learned a thing or two from observing poets that are past 50 years of age.

Whenever they talk about prose, what they are really saying is.....

"I'm tired, I want to take a nap. I don't have the energy to create a poem."

I imagine that it isn't the poets body that fails them as much as the inspiration.

After all, if you are a poet, and have lived over a 1/2 century, wouldn't you think that you've written about all of the epic experiences you have encountered by now?

That's why it's important, especially for "seasoned" poets to give themselves assignments.

Finley recently challenged us to come up with a poem that will inspire people. A poem that is centered in doing good, or being good, knowing that their is no reward for that.

Prose is so easy to write.

It is just telling a story or listing observations in chronological or numerical order.

Go to any Irish Pub in Saint Paul and I'll bet you find 200 Micks slurring prose over a mug and a cig.

Prose is storytelling, and in my opinion, nobody does this better than the Irish.

But poems are works of art, aren't they?

The problem with poems though is for every poem that is wonderful, you'll find 9 that are trash.

But back at the bar, everyone of those "Prose" conversations are actually interesting.

People don't think to often when they write prose, they just let words come off of their fingertips.

Most of the time, the words fall natural.

But a poem has to be conquered.

The muse doesn't just give you a poem, not a good one at least.

A real poem only comes into being if you wrestle it like Jacob wrestled God....and I think he broke a bone in that scrum, didn't he?

Anyways, there really is nothing harder that executing a wonderful poem.

Your mind has to be rested, sharp.

Your body has to be nimble and fed.

Most poets carry a work in their mind for a spell, just as a woman carries her child in the womb.

There is always pain before the birth though huh?

Did you know that most of the world top chess players work out 2-3 hours everyday?

To create from the mind, the body has to be in tune......so no Plop Ass with a beer in one hand, and a TV remote in the other will reach their objectives.

So young poets, remember.......when the older poets say they are currently working on prose, dismiss yourself....they really want to take a nap.

 

A Quick Question?????

I know when you subit photo's for books, often times publishers suggest not to use photo's with clothing that would "date" the work.

How does this apply to poems in your opinion.

The following poem you are about to read to place on a very specific day.

Will the poem lose its meaning when years pass and future generations don't understand the moment at hand?

Just read the poem please, and give me your honest thoughts?

Breakfast in Nebraska

On the first day that Joe's Cafe

Hung a big screen TV from their wall

All of the customers watched CNN

There was a special presentation

Of the Diamond Jubilee

Where the Queen floated down the Thames

On a royal barge, red & gold

1000 vessels followed

There was 14 miles of Union Jack bunting

And a belfry boat glided close behind

Mimicking Big Ben's ring tones as they passed

When the waitress returned

She became caught up in the fanfare

And placed her order pad onto the table

While informing all her customers

"You won't see that in Omaha!"

The Spiderman Rule

A little while ago, I was talking to Finley.....

About a State Fair poetry contest he and I are sponsoring.

The rules are pretty simple, your poems are to be 100 words or less, have some kind of connection to food, and if your poem has the ability to make the judges laugh, or even smile....you get bonus points for that.

With that said, some of the entries submitted were very dark.

I realize that poems sometimes need to be edgy, but  from my observation, I am finding that a lot of my cities poets seem to prefer to focus on themes that are dank and morose.

When I ran this by Finley, he didn't disagree......

"Ya Know" he said "I think what poets should do is try to capture the feeling that I got during the scene in Spiderman 2, when Peter Parker was trying to save that subway. Remember when his mask was pulled off, and everybody realized this hero who was fighting for the city was just a kid?"

Now I can hear it in Mikes voice, he was getting choked up over a scene from a comic book film.

"I just think that if more writers kept this in mind, that the world is filled with people like Spiderman, who go out of their way to help, and better situations with no regard for themselves...can you imagine how inspired we'd become."

At the same moment, I was becoming moved myself, and I know the whole thing seems sappy, but there really is something wonderful about the faith we plug into throughout our youth, and I think both Mike and and were free enough during our childhood to allow ourselves to become as vulnerable as our hero's featured in the Marvel comic strips.

With that said, if you are reading this, i respectfully would ask you to consider making your next writing project focus on delivering others hope. 

The Book, The Blood...My Poem

Tomorrow I am on vacation.

I am taking my wife to Custard State Lodge (South Dakota).

When I go with my wife, I let her choose our days events, but as Finley has always taught me....vacations are great for writing poems.

I have a clip board and a pen.

But I also love to read a book on vacation.

But not just ...a book, but...."A BOOK" something epic.

I'll tell you which book I chose, but first let me tell you how I chose it.

The bakery was savage this week.

We had outside temps of well over 100 several times this week.

With 6 commercial ovens roaring, it was well over 125 degrees.

Equipment broke

People got sick

People got scared

People quit

When you get into prolonged torture, you grow to accept it, and do your best to adapt.

Anyways....here is a poem I wrote about it.....

124 DEGREES -

With two hours before sunrise
The last baker enters the break room
Joining a crew, soaked and faded
Their shift hasn’t started

Condensation on windows
And Gatorade puddles
Serve as warnings
That this won’t be a day for talking

In silence they wait
Listening to the compressors
Wheezing for air, on the other side
Of the Oven Rooms door

Each considers leaving
But fears being the first
To turn tail
While their brothers face the dragon

Only years later will they realize
Why they had to carry on
It wasn’t for themselves
But each other

The End

Finley sent words of encouragement towards me after reading this and told me he enjoyed the poem, and then he reflected and mentioned how it is EZ for office folks to forget the beauty of vocations where your life / health is on the line.

"Danny, you need to read Christ in Concrete. It is written by a man, an Italian immigrant who is a brick layer in NYC. He makes sky scrapers. You hear how glorious the process is, but it comes at a cost. People get their skulls crushed in this book."


I knew I must have this book, but when I went online...it was written a billion years ago.


I called 4 local bookstores....


Nobody had it.


I posted on Facebook, a girlio said she found a copy in Coon Rapids. 


Coon Rapids is 27 minutes from my house.


For me to travel that far is like you going to Peru.


So I called Finley after work this morning, asked him if it was worth the drive....


Finley grunted and answered my question with a question.....


"Is any book worth a 27 minute drive?" Then he laughed.....


"I mean...will I love it I asked?"


"I don't know asked Finley....did you love the movie the Bicycle Thief?"

Low Blow.....he knows that movie changed my life.

Needless to say....I went to Coon Rapids.

I will report on the book when I get back.

I hope you liked my poem.

The Biggest Mistake Poets Make

So I call Finley tonight to listen to a poem I'm working on. Who knows....if I catch him in the right mood, maybe he'll want to collaborate.

He tells me to read the poem, I do......and within 4 seconds the critique begins.

"Isn't this based on a blog post you wrote recently?" he asks.

"Yes" I confess with embarrassment, because I know where this conversation is going....

"There is prose, and there is poetry" Finley reminds me "and if people would just remember that most items were meant to be used as prose...there would be far less shi*** poetry" Mike says as he laughs.

I knew this, then I forgot it because I flattered myself to believe that I could turn anything into a poem.

"Remember how much we both loved Dylan's CHRONICLES - VOLUME #1 book?" Mike asked.

"Why did we like it so much? I think that book was far more generous than all of Dylan's poems combined. Bob is/was wise enough to know that poems should be written sparingly."

Now I tried to redeem myself from falling in such an obvious trap........

"Yeah, we should only write poems to express love right?"

Then Mike pauses for a bit......

"Maybe, yes maybe you are right. As long as you realize that love is broad and can cover many topics. I mean your poem.... Dan it wasn't generous. It was boiled down. Why do you think everybody hates Ezra Pound? That's what he did.He boiled topics down so much nobody knew what the hell he was talking about. But I would agree that many poems are written by self serving devils."

I pause before asking..........

"HUH?"

"Well look at Nicole Kidman." Finley says.....

"Basically she is just a devil. What has she really done from a creative point of view? I think she is just kinda a devil that takes up space so you can't inhabit it. And that's what so many poems do when they are written. They serve no purpose if they don't sweep you off your feet. Yeah....stay with your fireball concept. Write about things you love if you want to write poems, otherwise.....just stick to your blogs."