grapez awakes from dreaming

Whew, well that’s all over. Not that I didn’t enjoy every minute of it. But 3 months is a long time, and 81 poems are a lot of poems. But before we close this writing chapter and enter the world of revision, I’d like to comment a little on something I tried here. Not all the time, but often. And that’s poetry without metaphor or trope. But language that clearly communicates in a rhythmical and creative manner. I thought it would be an interesting experiment to write spiritual poems in a technical language. Like this from the first poem:

Scientists are certain
that the world is simply
energy aligned

in forms of matter if
and when we see them so.
But love is form that sees

itself as energy
and recognizes nothing
else will really matter.

But often, trope, of a daily kind, appeared. Just because it’s even part of technical language sometimes. Like this from #76:

Our reality
evolved by physical
necessity to what

it is today: a mirror
of our senses for
survival. It’s subjective,

not a true solution
of what is. What is
will want fresh evolution.

It’s difficult to speak of the ineffable without reverting to some kind of metaphor. Even the use of such words as energy in the first example may be viewed as metaphor. And following that line of thought to its conclusion, all language is metaphor at its root. It’s a poor substitute for reality, but one we need for communication. And that, in part, was the medium and the message of this project:

So all things here have names:
the rocks; the pond; the wind;
the waves, invisible

and visible. Yet names
eliminate the living
energies around

and in me. Everything
is indefinable
and absolutely lovely.

Anyways, that’s something of the intent the past three months. The next months will see (besides new employment) my efforts at publishing these on e-journals, and possibly paper ones as well (especially if they take email submissions). And then, I’m going to publish these in book form even if I have to DYI.

Meanwhile, I’ll remove the poems one by one from the blog, as I revise and submit, leaving only the blog post title, in hopes to link to the online publication that has published the poem. Much of my posts in the coming months will center on the success and failure of these efforts.

But I’d like to return this space to actual blogging about other things as well. Some reviews. Comments about other blogging. Other good stuff. We’ll see.