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Precious
by hector Sunday, Dec 29 2013, 10:10am
international / poetry / post

we rhapsodise,
excruciate
we run the (gauntlet) gamut
of emotion
and yet if every one of us
died instantly
existence would be no worse off,
perhaps even better off

our craft is pure self-indulgence
poetry
for whom do we write?
to the world, to a person, to nature
don’t make me laugh
we write for ourselves
regardless of the lies
and pretence --
semantic masturbation,
textual narcissism

how very precious we are
we are poets, not a rare
or endangered species
-- there’s never been
a shortage of wankers
in any human society or culture

we all have something to say
but we trip the text fantastic
saying it

rather than use the integrity of plain
speech
we convolute, involute and complicate
how precious we are?

why state something plainly
when u can embellish, elaborate
exaggerate and just plain LIE
O, but we should never ever
use THAT word in that context

regardless of how many drooling
dunces follow us from reading to reading
or how many dedicated novitiates open their
legs for the artist

the authenticity of a hemorrhaging
crimson wound
or the stench of a battlefield,
the starkness of a sea-cliff
and the wind hissing through
the long desolate grass
puts us all to shame

the crispness of truth
virgin white as a winter morning
frozen with meaning,
defying our pretences
mocking our attempts to capture
the wonder of a single snowflake
or dry autumn leaf

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COMMENTS

not altogether accurate
by huey Sunday, Dec 29 2013, 9:59pm

you are clearly a poet and should know we write sometimes simply because we are carried by an emotional/inspirational peak or low -- the words flow of their own accord and are not contrived as you infer. do not be so hard on yourself -- but then you/we are poets.

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spontaneous
by hec Monday, Dec 30 2013, 7:38am

are u referring to spontaneous writing? if so then i would state IMO that all poetry is spontaneous -- it is the result of numerous forces acting within the being and without (culture) until it bursts forth as text.

the other challenge, for me at least, is the limitation of language -- conveying meaning with an inadequate medium is a challenge indeed.

as for "accuracy", as u put it, the piece was entirely accurate at the time of writing. ;o)

tnx for ur comment, huey -- all crit is good crit

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