Kill the Critic

Killing the Inner Critic
You can’t do that!
          I hear far back in my head.
Poetry is serious stuff!
          It is my voice, when I’m dry.
You must be deliberate!
          Best ignored.
Where’s your rhyme scheme?
          Can’t speak—only scream.
No wonder nobody’ll publish you!
          Narrow and hostile, too.
Poetry doesn’t work like that!
          Protective of something sacred.
Don’t you have [...]

Mending Mattisse

Dicks on Dancers
Auden made a comment once
about all readers being
like little boys who draw
mustaches on ladies in posters
They say that the difference
between men and boys
is the price of their toys
but it also resides
in the magnitude of subterfuge
and vandalism
Matisse had strange ideas:
in his portrayal of a bacchanal
The Dance is danced by naked
humans sans sex organs
I thought [...]

Hermit as Uncle Walt

 
I Sing Myself Walt Whitman
I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. (Walt Whitman from “Song of Myself” Halloween has come upon me, shaggy,
I shake my grizzled self; I strike a pose,
see within reflections, that faded rose
of bygone poets, Whitman, this scraggly
stranger [...]

Sages & Swords (Fantasy Fiction Anthology)

Independent Publishers Group
Rumor has it this title is close to going out of print. It’s a really terrific anthology of short fantasy fiction collected, selected, and masterfully arranged by editor Daniel E. Blackston. If you’re into short fantasy fiction, you’ll love this anthology. If you missed getting Lords of Swords before it went out of [...]

Experiments in Writing

Experiments in Writing
Check out my soul . . . er . . . “My Soul”.
Are all just disconnected spirits in a mutual journey? Or sparks of the same sacred fire bound for the stars?