Well, well, well, after visiting 4 bookstore's poetry sections and coming up empty, I finally found Polish Poet Czeslaw Milosz's New and Collected Poems (1931-2001). I was stunned by one of his poems I posted on my WILD MAN site, so I had to get my hands on more of his work. I am not disappointed...I think I have found one of my favorite poets. But one thing I did discover that pangs me deeply...there are four rows of Christian books at Hastings in the Valley and most of them couldn't lift the eyelid of a pubescent schoolboy at Victoria's Secret! And to Hastings shame, there is just a half of a shelf for poetry. And even the poetry that is on that shelf is suspect...I mean, since when is Tupac Shakur and Jewel more important to carry than Milosz? I mean common Spokane.
Does Poetry matter anymore? I believe it does. It's an art of the finest skill to cram all of heaven into a few words. It takes a sermonic alchemist of the highest order to transform a pile of ink into a phoenix of revelation with a simple linguistic nudge. Writing prose is like firing a shotgun...its hit and miss most of the time but poetry is like russian roulette...it only takes one bullet....you never know when it will fire but when it does its deadly.
You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul. --George Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah
6 comments:
The "pride of poets.... disclosure of frailty", well put. Makes it hard to respond too with the same tools. Like telling someone "your cooking is great, try my lollipop." Maybe instead of using words you're supposed to tap dance to show your appreciation of poetry. I think I'll try. -Matt
I need to get one of his books... that one poem you quoted is great!
I also read that a lot of his writings were inspiration for my favorite album of all time... Da's (Daniel Amos): Darn floor, big bite..
http://www.danielamos.com/da/darnfloorbigbite/index.html
currently, the only poetry books i own are by bukowski...lol :D
I agree that it takes a huge amount of passion, effort and talent to be a 'good' poet. I think the reason there is not more interest is because you kind of have to think to enjoy it. Most people are lazy and not intellectually driven. Or maybe just me? hehe. I don't think so. It is much more easy to be entertained by music or acting on tv. Then you can just sit back and enjoy the arts and not have to work for it.
Its the same with paintings. I don't like to stare at it and speculate is meaning, or try to get into the artists head...I would just rather be told what the picture means without any mystery. Do you think it is ok to not be 'artsy'? hmmm
got the book in the mail today..
was only like 10 bucks used at amazon...
wow.........
only read like the 1930's stuff so far, but deep really deep....
Bravo Joey,,,,thank God, you give me confidence that there is hope for America.
And as for the artsy question. "No I don't"
Hail to the art of parable....no pearls for swine.
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