In the Preface to Reflections
in a Boomer’s Eye, http://amzn.com/0996768424 ,
I explained why I started to write poetry.
“When I was thirty I became interested in writing. However,
at that time, I was focused on mysteries and thrillers (you know, Dan Fortune,
Lew Archer, and James Bond). Poetry was not something I considered writing
until I turned sixty and started to contemplate my existence. At that time my
attention span became very abbreviated due to a short circuit in my head so
poems, essays, and sundry musings were things I could finish before a squirrel
ran by or I was distracted by a bright shiny object. I also thought it was
about time that I learned to express what I was feeling, what I was seeing, or
what I was remembering in words.”
After publishing Reflections
I have continued writing but my passion has turned to writing very short,
Haiku-like, poems. A friend recently asked me if I was still writing and I said
yes but my attention span must have really shrunk because now I just write
three line poems. She laughed and said that actually it meant that I was
allowing myself to live in the moment and letting those thoughts be expressed. Since
I do believe in experiencing moments (see http://doggeddoggerel.blogspot.com/2013/03/moments.html)
I decided that she is probably right.
One of the quotes that I keep on my computer monitor is by
Robert Frost: “Poetry is when an emotion
has found its thought and the thought has found words.” So, maybe I am
actually doing that in short bursts. There are no rules on how many words it
takes to express your emotions.
Jack Kerouac said: "The
Japanese Haiku is strictly disciplined to seventeen syllables but since the
language structure is different I don't think American Haikus (short three-line
poems intended to be completely packed with Void of Whole) should worry about
syllables because American speech is something again...bursting to pop. Above
all, a Haiku must be very simple and free of all poetic trickery and make a
little picture and yet be as airy and graceful as a Vivaldi Pastorella."
His Haikus are often referred to as American Pops.
While on Jack Kerouac, I just came across a video of him
reading original Haiku to the accompaniment of a Al Cohn / Zoot Sims on jazz saxophone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-if3tkmZvM This is definitely worth a listen.
Here are a few of my American Pops:
Indiscretions
of youth
Create
memories
And
arthritis
It
was there
Then
it was gone
Or,
am I?
The
elevator opens
No
one is there
Good
A
hug
An
extra squeeze
A
stealthy message?
Her
eyes
Leak
a question
Silence
answers
Before I met you
I never listened to
Raindrops on the roof
Light of the gibbous moon
Through the loft’s skylight
Illuminates a spiders masterpiece
Peonies
Wind tossed and rain battered
Brighten my path
A shortcut
Across the field
Wet shoes
Rooftop TV antennas
Vestiges
Of another era
Rural blacktop
Slow tractors
A peck of apples
Searching a cemetery
For an ancestor
Seeing life
Today
The dragons won
But only round one
Grandma’s blue hydrangea
Rusty nails
She said
