Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

poems are the spit of the subconscious
we understand them because
they use words to defy
the monkeyness of our face
have you ever hit a poet
with philosophy or common sense
they spit back the irrational grumble
of macro-indigestion

that is why poetry is such a messy art
expect to wipe expectorate from your mind
but spit is beautiful at times
catch a globe of it in the moonlight
don't touch it don't touch
poetry is a sacred illness
germinating so much

There is a kind of sacred illness
that in India they call God Madness
poetry is not that, at least God does not
have to be a Mad poet, poet madness then
I spent a year in a meditation community
back in the early 70's, the leader "guru"
there was an English man, who told me
that what he did not like, was the pathos of poetry
he wrote poetry, but apparently it lead to bathos
I'm sorry but his poetry did nothing for me, or
not much, he told me that the spirit of Wordsworth
came to him, that maybe so, but Wordsworth
was a much better poet then him, pathos, bathos
whatever, he was a very intelligent man, but
I could not agree with his views on poetry
in my view it was determinism, not enlightenment

Ha ! nothin' like reading a piece what leaves nothin' but invigoration behind !
Thx irish !

I don't know how to comment on bathos and pathos.

On my little poem the pun on "germinating" is key.

Are we agreeing? disagreeing?---what is the point? Maybe there is no difference of opinion at all.

Actually I don't like words like "holy" or sacred". They have lost their meaning. They are supposed to contain the emotion of "awe" but they have become ritualistic mumblings, blown up word balloons filled with air, not helium. They don't make the imagination rise or speak funny and laugh. They are just human puffery. Anybody with a pin can prick them. Bam! Awe is different. Awe is an emotion. Awe is what you have when you encounter the just barely comprehensible----creation, the universe, the possibility of God or the quantum dance.

But I don't know what we are talking about. I wrote my little poem with a burst of irrational energy. The thread of thought belongs to Sweetwater----I have to look at the poem to find out what we are talking about. A lot of lines. A lot of different threads throughout the poem.

I apologize if I'm not making sense because I'm on a different page.

It seems How to Write Poetry is a criticism of forums and poets on those forums----and the comments.

On other forums there is some quibbling and biting nastiness but not here at Studio 8. I hope Sweetwater is not taking Studio 8 poets to task.

Let's not take everything so seriously.

What is (are) the issue(s)? Have to look at the original poem.

this isn't good. i was reading along - dan (irish sea) wrote this, there were replies - and all of a sudden i can't follow the replies, because somebody - looks like sweetwater, maybe - didn't like how theirs reflected on them, so they deleted it. i hate that. if you said something dumb, for g-d's sake, leave it up. eventually, all of us will say something really stupid. stop revising your image for posterity, or for whatever reason you're cleaning up your comments. knock that off.

dan. for what it's worth, i liked your piece.

have you ever hit a poet
with philosophy or common sense
they spit back the irrational grumble
of macro-indigestion

- that made me happy to read.

enjoyed the comments here,,,one of the best reasons to write a poem...it might spark ideas all across the spectrum for others consideration and possible stimulation....might strike a chord, might stir up a hornets nest....might involuntarily pull you in to something you weren't thinkin' about at all when you woke up this morning

nice job danno.....you made us think....and you did it creatively

the thread ( short or lengthy ) is the best part of the whole process - starts with a poem no less then takes off gets folks involved, fired up, disgusted, hollering, whispering, happy, sad, leg-kickin', bitch-slapping, hugging, whooping, - a thread displays the good & the bad - the best & the worst - and all points in-between - the threads that may happen the only good reason to post poems to the 'Net - hell yeah, Mongolia !