Frank O'Hara - (reasonably) young and in love

Frank O'Hara - (reasonably) young and in love

Mind’s Eye

Mind’s Eye: "i.e. immediate, intense physical reactions, a sense of metaphor and decoration in everything—to express something not of them—something I suppose spiritual. But it proceeds from the material, the material eaten out with acid, pulled down from underneath, made to perform and always kept in order, in its place. Sometimes it cannot be made to indicate its spiritual goal clearly (some of Hopkins, say, where the point seems to be missing) but even then the spiritual must be felt. Miss Moore does this—but occasionally. The other way—of using the supposedly “spiritual”—the beautiful, the nostalgic, the ideal and poetic, to produce the material is the way of the Romantic, I think, and a great perversity."


It is always good to get touchstones from other writers/poets to keep our eyes sharp to the world around us. I have dificulty when I see something and can't get the depth of it to my satisfaction. Then I think that maybe I have seen enough. TA

John Cheever

"Cheever once described the writer's task as to evoke 'the perfumes of life: sea water, the smoke of burning hemlock and the breasts of women.'"

Theodore Roethke,

Theodore Roethke, went into "'Dionysian frenzy' that Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote about. Roethke wrote in his journals, 'I can project myself easier into a flower than a person.' And, 'I change into vegetables. First, a squash, then a turnip. … I become a cabbage, ready for the cleaver, the close knives.' And he wrote,'I knew how it felt to be a tree, a blade of grass, even a rabbit.' Also in his journal, he wrote, 'I wish I could photosynthesize.'"


Roethke wrote:
I knew a woman, lovely in her bones,
When small birds sighed, she would sigh back at them;

Quote: George Macdonald/ Poem: T A Delmore

George Macdonald, author of At the Back of the North Wind and The Princess and the Goblin, perhaps still puts it best, over 100 years on. "Were I asked, what is a fairytale? I should reply, Read Undine: that is a fairytale; then read this and that as well, and you will see what is a fairytale. Were I further begged to describe the fairytale, or define what it is, I would make answer, that I should as soon think of describing the abstract human face, or stating what must go to constitute a human being. A fairytale is just a fairytale, as a face is just a face; and of all fairytales I know, I think Undine the most beautiful."

When Eden said enough--- seeing
her first family pushed past paradise
to barren land, autumn fell on summer
and winter was felt
as a cold embrace.

The venture back still happens
like Abraham checking on Ishmael,
soldiers walk out of jungles decades later
wondering how the war passed them by.
Alchemists too lazy for travel make magic
and watch colors collude; maybe into gold.

God and the prophets are safeguarding the risky
edges and Moses could spit into Promised Land
an edenic for his stubborn tribe, but never
his heel.

Manna in the morning is mushy yellow
making forty years palatable travel.
coming back to paradise is not coming home
or paying a visit to a prodigal parent.

We are never greeted at the threshold
except in our imaginations.

Quote G.B. Shaw Poem: T A Delmore

G.B. Shaw said, "I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it."
And, "Dancing is a perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire."
And, "Youth is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on children."


As the night closed in
a murder of crows
fled towards the bow-legged moon.

"'Security is not the meaning of my life. Great opportunities
are worth the risks.'

-- Shirley Hufstedler"

quote Ellen Bryant Voigt, Poem T A Delmore

" Ellen Bryant Voigt, said, 'Resist any temptation to use the poem to make its readers like you, or admire you, or forgive you.'"



Reality
She is from Mississippi
Said you had to love fish
As Jambalaya arched
From her mouth to mine.
We got caught up
In a Romanian rhap.-
Her secret sin, dueting
With Eddie Mercury
As we sang: no escape
From reality.
I promised bibs and she
De-shelling the stew
This was too good to be true
And we set aside Monday
For karaoke.

May Sarton said "'If I were in solitary confinement, I'd never write another novel, and probably not keep a journal, but I'd write poetry, because poems, you see, are between God and me.'"

Poetry and Writing

I have gone over the galleys for my latest book A Poultice for Belief I have had worries about an editor tearing my work apart and making it his but that is not the case. I am so close to the work or my tenses are off that he has done great editing. Only one poem will I quibble with hime over really. As for my healing book Crossing up River is the working title, I have to match the pictures up with my text and keep going . I am not a computer person so they the pictures don't line up right. But my goal is to get it down and work it out with the lucky publisher later on.