National Poetry Month – Post #9: “The Observer”

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Greetings Bloginistas!

My ninth National Poetry Month post is an original poem I wrote about myself and my writing as a companion to the poem “The Maker” from National Poetry Month – Post #8…Enjoy!

The Observer

His eyes collect
each thing he sees, until
vision becomes hoard
and must be
organized or
it will overtake
in an endless, repeating,
avalanche/waterfall/mudslide.

He pours them out on paper
with pencil, pen, or keyboard;
sorted in
stanza-ed crates –
in boxes of meter –
on shelves of rhyme.
Some gets lost
or abandoned,
as often happens when
the collector
battles
the collection
and loses.

But with a second
(or third or fourth or fifth) look,
he finds many
treasures in the
bric-a-brac
laid out
in its messy order before him.

With the watchmaker’s tools
of revision and a
burnishing cloth
woven by
The Horae themselves,
he creates priceless things,
Steampunk wonders,
golden, shining
apparatuses of
thought and word –
amazing and precious
to all who behold.

© Jamy Sweet 2013-05-10

A few references via Wikipedia:

Horae
Steampunk

:^>

Jamy

National Poetry Month – Post #8: “The Maker”

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Dearest Bloginistas,

My 8th National Poetry Month post is an original poem I wrote about my muse, my partner Michael, and his innate gift to create. I will follow this with a poem called “The Observer” about my own personal bag of tricks. I wrote the two poems as a duo that I will one day combine together, but for now, they can stand on their own…Enjoy!

The Maker

He has the hands
of a surgeon,
or violinist,
and takes nothing,
or bits of nothing,
and creates
everything.

He’s an alchemist;
combining disparate
petals or bulbs,
yarn or thread,
glues or papers,
wools or cottons,
to produce
the Philosopher’s Stone.

There’s immortality
in his finished product,
elemental divinity
in his every combination.

“Shock” and “awe” are
often used to
describe his creations,
Trojan horses
filled,
not with Greek soldiers,
but with the army
of his gifts.
An army that
does not plunder
or conquer,
but protects and serves
the Joy
that comes from
receiving
the efforts of
his genius.

© Jamy Sweet 2013-05-05

:^>

Jamy

National Poetry Month – Post #7: My Latest New Favorite Poet: Ron Koertge

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The latest of my new favorite poets and my 7th National Poetry Month post is Ron Koertge, from the very near-by city of Pasadena, California. The below work (from American Life in Poetry: Column 419) tells a beautiful story that has images that are vivid and so strong:

“Burning the Book“

The anthology of love poems I bought
for a quarter is brittle, anyway, and comes
apart when I read it.

One at a time, I throw pages on the fire
and watch smoke make its way up
and out.

I’m almost to the index when I hear
a murmuring in the street. My neighbors
are watching it snow.

I put on my blue jacket and join them.
The children stand with their mouths
open.

I can see nouns—longing, rapture, bliss—
land on every tongue, then disappear.

The last lines are my favorites because they take the nouns from the book of love poems and turn them into things that have weight and existence:

“I can see nouns—longing, rapture, bliss—
land on every tongue, then disappear.”

…Enjoy!

The full article can be found here.

;oD

Jamy

National Poetry Month Post Pledge: UPDATE :-D

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NaPoMo_wMay

Hello Bloginistas,

I wanted to drop you all a line to let you know that my pledge of adding “30 posts to this blog by the time April 30th rolls around” MAY (read: WILL) run over, since TOMORROW is April 30th and I still have 25 posts to go! OY.

I will still post those 25 posts, and even though it will go into May, they will still be in celebration of National Poetry Month! I think that only one month to celebrate my passion and vocation, Poetry, is not enough anyway, as I devote my whole YEAR (whole LIFE, really) to reading, writing, studying, and blogging about it.

So, there you go, you’ll still get the promised 30 posts in honor of National Poetry Month, but in May as well. Maybe we should make both April AND May National Poetry Months?

Thanks for reading!

;->

Jamy

National Poetry Month – Post #6: “Moon Child”

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Dearest Bloginistas,

My sixth National Poetry Month post is an original poem I wrote for my partner for his birthday a couple of years ago…He (like me) is a Cancer, and as Cancers are ruled by the moon, we are often called “Moon Children”…Enjoy!

Moon Child

Raise your arms,
palms upturned,
Moon Child,
there is a great pull
waiting,
and it is yours.

The pull is yours
to command,
Moon Child,
to shape, to bend,
the will of the world.

Don’t take this
power lightly,
Moon Child,
in it are the
tides, gentler winds,
the length of days, and
a multitude of myths.

But you are
a myth unto yourself
Moon Child,
exerting influence
on far more
important things;
those whom you love
and love you in return.

And on this,
your day of days
Moon Child,
may the tidal wave
at your back carry
you gently forth
into your future.

May it be of your
own creation,
Moon Child,
and may the winds
that accompany it
bear not destruction,
but all that you
love and hope and
wish for.

© Jamy Sweet 2011-07-13

:^>

Jamy

National Poetry Month – Post #5: My Latest New Favorite Poet: Joshua Mehigan

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I instantly wanted Joshua Mehigan to be My New Favorite Poet after reading his beautiful, epic-in-scale poem The Orange Bottle in the February 2013 issue of Poetry Magazine.

After reading his other work, my opinions were further validated by his brilliance and command of language.

Information about Mr. Mehigan and his other poetry can be found both on his personal site and at his page at the Poetry Foundation’s website:

http://www.joshuamehigan.net
Joshua Mehigan

Enjoy!!

;oD

Jamy