"But still we sit through each second's passing:/Powerless against perpetual Present, we remain/Interned by time." ....this line hit me hard, we are often so caught up in ourselves to forget the profundity of the present moment. The alliteration works so well too, it wasn't overdone and it added a very musical quality to the poem.
Thanks, John! Truth be told, I started working on this one about 15 years ago, if you can believe it. This is a more updated version, but who's to say how much I'll tinker with it still. Wasn't entirely sure what exactly I was on about then, but to me it seems way more relevant now. Thanks for reading!
James Hart, the wordsmith! I am a big fan of when you chisel away the modern & trivial to honor the timeless human spirit. The work you put is evident in how smooth and disciplined each line reads, thanks for this!
Off-note questions: 1) did you first write this poem in pen and if so 2) what difference (if any) do you think it makes in the voice of the poem?
You're way too kind, Johan! I'm so glad you liked it!
Yes, always pen and paper first, and I think that makes a big difference.
When I was younger, I tried to write poems. That's not exactly how I'd describe it anymore. I know this sounds navel-gazey but for me it really is the truth: when I sit down to write, it's really time to spend exploring ideas. And formal poetry, with its metrical feet, stressed lines, rhyming or alliteration, etc., just does not allow for a literal means to express myself. So, I have to figure out how to express myself figuratively and metaphorically, which to me more accurate, insightful and rewarding. The poem, then, is just the artifact I have of this process.
But the downside is, it's very, very difficult! So for me, pen and paper removes all distractions like various apps on my phone or computer so I can give the process its due attention. It also gets me to stop thinking about poetry as final product and more like a process to collaborate with my imagination. A pen slows me down considerably, which again I think is a benefit.
This increased focus, removal of distractions and more patient time spent writing I have to think changes the voice considerably.
I know exactly what you mean about poetry feeling restrictive when trying to express yourself. I used to write tons of poetry as a child and did so through college. As I developed my prose, I seemed to slowly forget or become unable to express myself accurately through poetry. Really strange how that works. Perhaps I could do it again if I try determining exactly what ideas I want to express first, as it sounds like you do. I used to just go line by line and see where inspiration took me.
That's a legitimate way of doing it as well! Some of the poems I end up with start with nothing at all in mind. That kind of writing can be really wild. It can reveal things about yourself you didn't know were there.
Absolutely true about poetry being a different mindset. I started with short stories and wrote them for years. I absolutely loved 'em (and still do). I only started to give poetry a go because, I dunno, it seemed fun I guess. Now it's poetry's particular mode of thinking that I really enjoy and seems to fit me best. (I mean don't get me wrong, the nonexistent pay and prestige is pretty awesome, too.)
This process sounds very interesting. I'm just gonna muse on your wall here a bit, please don't mind if I do.
So if I get you correctly, are you saying you really (but not really) 'chisel' the poem out of a larger exploratory body of work? Like a stream of consciousness journal? I'm also curious about how goes from paper to digital -- does it get more edits? Is the format decided before going to digital?
The tension with modernity is definitely a theme you visit often - not to mention you post smaller poems as pictures written with paper/pen. It's cool to see that theme manifest in how you compose and present them. Did you choose this process to explore that theme, or do you think the theme is generated by your fondness for the pen/paper process? Have/do you write poems on the computer (I have written some on iPhone notes, but what I find about writing a poem on a digital format first is that its never done -- it just floats in the cloud, always with the blinking cursor).
That's a rude amount of questions, feel free to ignore any and all, but what you say about the pen is very real for me.
By the way, do you have a typewriter? I got one for my birthday this year, and it's a different beast all together.
I start with some kind of sentiment or feeling, which is an intuitive or right-brain thing. (I’m aware that that brain model is inaccurate and misleading, but for this example it’s a decent shorthand). Then, to try to understand what that feeling is and what it’s trying to tell me, which requires both exploring the emotions behind it, and reasoning and left-brain work. But I try not to analyze to the point where the emotions become lost. Writing and revising, then, is an oscillation between both of these, and as the changes become finer and less drastic, the oscillations become faster and more subtle. This is the iterative process they teach at Disney, and for me it works pretty well.
As for my themes, street photography taught that about me. I had been practicing it for a few years before I decided to sit down and try to determine just what it is I was taking pictures of—to me, it was just “whatever caught my eye.” It was startling for me to see there were some obvious common themes in the images, and one of the most common was something like, “trying to bring the past into the present.” That’s when I realized I tend to focus on that a lot in both my photos and my writing. Prior to that I was pretty oblivious to this.
So the theme kind of found me so to speak, not something I deliberately chose, but now that I know it’s a common subject of mine I do try to be more deliberate about it. That’s why I share things through calligraphy. Not because I’m awesome at it—clearly I’m no expert—but I find real value in sharing work in a way that reminds us of our humanity, and not let technology abstract it out too much. I think we’ve done too much of that now, and it would be good to go the other way.
I do save my digital versions on my computer, but I also save all my notebooks. Redundancy and all that. :) I absolutely do have a typewriter! As a matter of fact, my grandfather was a typewriter salesman. I pull it out every now and then but it doesn’t exactly speak to me as a daily tool I should use. I do like them, I just seem to prefer pen and paper for regular work.
"But still we sit through each second's passing:/Powerless against perpetual Present, we remain/Interned by time." ....this line hit me hard, we are often so caught up in ourselves to forget the profundity of the present moment. The alliteration works so well too, it wasn't overdone and it added a very musical quality to the poem.
Thanks, Thomas, and I agree. Just as much a reminder to myself as anything else.
Loved this, James! My favorite stanza:
"We've turned in the past
To soothsayers and sages to scry our fortunes,
Their vague visions and evasive hereafters
Granting mere glimpses of the games Fates played,
Their schemes still concealed."
Thanks, John! Truth be told, I started working on this one about 15 years ago, if you can believe it. This is a more updated version, but who's to say how much I'll tinker with it still. Wasn't entirely sure what exactly I was on about then, but to me it seems way more relevant now. Thanks for reading!
I love what you did with this poem! Heidegger’s essay on technology meets Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Brilliant 😁🙂
I really appreciate that you saw both in there. :) Heidegger's ideas definitely left an impression on me and I've always loved The Green Knight.
James Hart, the wordsmith! I am a big fan of when you chisel away the modern & trivial to honor the timeless human spirit. The work you put is evident in how smooth and disciplined each line reads, thanks for this!
Off-note questions: 1) did you first write this poem in pen and if so 2) what difference (if any) do you think it makes in the voice of the poem?
You're way too kind, Johan! I'm so glad you liked it!
Yes, always pen and paper first, and I think that makes a big difference.
When I was younger, I tried to write poems. That's not exactly how I'd describe it anymore. I know this sounds navel-gazey but for me it really is the truth: when I sit down to write, it's really time to spend exploring ideas. And formal poetry, with its metrical feet, stressed lines, rhyming or alliteration, etc., just does not allow for a literal means to express myself. So, I have to figure out how to express myself figuratively and metaphorically, which to me more accurate, insightful and rewarding. The poem, then, is just the artifact I have of this process.
But the downside is, it's very, very difficult! So for me, pen and paper removes all distractions like various apps on my phone or computer so I can give the process its due attention. It also gets me to stop thinking about poetry as final product and more like a process to collaborate with my imagination. A pen slows me down considerably, which again I think is a benefit.
This increased focus, removal of distractions and more patient time spent writing I have to think changes the voice considerably.
I know exactly what you mean about poetry feeling restrictive when trying to express yourself. I used to write tons of poetry as a child and did so through college. As I developed my prose, I seemed to slowly forget or become unable to express myself accurately through poetry. Really strange how that works. Perhaps I could do it again if I try determining exactly what ideas I want to express first, as it sounds like you do. I used to just go line by line and see where inspiration took me.
That's a legitimate way of doing it as well! Some of the poems I end up with start with nothing at all in mind. That kind of writing can be really wild. It can reveal things about yourself you didn't know were there.
Absolutely true about poetry being a different mindset. I started with short stories and wrote them for years. I absolutely loved 'em (and still do). I only started to give poetry a go because, I dunno, it seemed fun I guess. Now it's poetry's particular mode of thinking that I really enjoy and seems to fit me best. (I mean don't get me wrong, the nonexistent pay and prestige is pretty awesome, too.)
Reveal things about yourself you didn't know were there ... Yes, that is a great point. Lol - the nonexistent pay and prestige. 😄
This process sounds very interesting. I'm just gonna muse on your wall here a bit, please don't mind if I do.
So if I get you correctly, are you saying you really (but not really) 'chisel' the poem out of a larger exploratory body of work? Like a stream of consciousness journal? I'm also curious about how goes from paper to digital -- does it get more edits? Is the format decided before going to digital?
The tension with modernity is definitely a theme you visit often - not to mention you post smaller poems as pictures written with paper/pen. It's cool to see that theme manifest in how you compose and present them. Did you choose this process to explore that theme, or do you think the theme is generated by your fondness for the pen/paper process? Have/do you write poems on the computer (I have written some on iPhone notes, but what I find about writing a poem on a digital format first is that its never done -- it just floats in the cloud, always with the blinking cursor).
That's a rude amount of questions, feel free to ignore any and all, but what you say about the pen is very real for me.
By the way, do you have a typewriter? I got one for my birthday this year, and it's a different beast all together.
Those are all excellent questions!
I start with some kind of sentiment or feeling, which is an intuitive or right-brain thing. (I’m aware that that brain model is inaccurate and misleading, but for this example it’s a decent shorthand). Then, to try to understand what that feeling is and what it’s trying to tell me, which requires both exploring the emotions behind it, and reasoning and left-brain work. But I try not to analyze to the point where the emotions become lost. Writing and revising, then, is an oscillation between both of these, and as the changes become finer and less drastic, the oscillations become faster and more subtle. This is the iterative process they teach at Disney, and for me it works pretty well.
As for my themes, street photography taught that about me. I had been practicing it for a few years before I decided to sit down and try to determine just what it is I was taking pictures of—to me, it was just “whatever caught my eye.” It was startling for me to see there were some obvious common themes in the images, and one of the most common was something like, “trying to bring the past into the present.” That’s when I realized I tend to focus on that a lot in both my photos and my writing. Prior to that I was pretty oblivious to this.
So the theme kind of found me so to speak, not something I deliberately chose, but now that I know it’s a common subject of mine I do try to be more deliberate about it. That’s why I share things through calligraphy. Not because I’m awesome at it—clearly I’m no expert—but I find real value in sharing work in a way that reminds us of our humanity, and not let technology abstract it out too much. I think we’ve done too much of that now, and it would be good to go the other way.
I do save my digital versions on my computer, but I also save all my notebooks. Redundancy and all that. :) I absolutely do have a typewriter! As a matter of fact, my grandfather was a typewriter salesman. I pull it out every now and then but it doesn’t exactly speak to me as a daily tool I should use. I do like them, I just seem to prefer pen and paper for regular work.
"trying to bring the past into the present" - that's exactly what I was looking for to describe it.
I feel the tradition in your words. thanks for sharing and responding!
Very cool. Love scry... and second sight. And Robin Hood.
Glad you enjoyed it, Tom, thanks for reading (or listening as the case may be)!