Q and A

To William Carlos Williams

Sound/chaos

 falls from

the heart of the pen

rhythmically organised

or madness unfolded

language laughing

literate illiterally

building blocks of structure

scripture visions

fired from the burning

crossbows of Gods

and the Damned

a thought expanded

mind remanded and

reprimanded

searching perfect syllable

in the fog and the funk

for that perfect

                    that perfect

expression

of the life of 

the poet

emotionally charged

and over spilling

with pneumatic noise

Reviews

[AJNJ]

Is there a perfect expression, a perfect poem for a poet thus charged with emotion and full of such conflicting themes and visions? A poet's mind is so dynamic. In a moment it's a stairway to heaven and the next it's the gates to Dante's Hell. Loved the images 'pneumatic noise' carried to me. Air puffs up yet is still so empty. No point in reprimanding the overactive mind. All a poet can do is snatch away and salvage what seems meaningful from the chaff it keeps churning out. This is the best we can do in our quest for perfection.

[gram linski]

thanks for the great review, Pestonjee, I think all us poets strive for that perfect syllable, only a very few ever find it but that is the joy and pain of writing, that's what keeps bringing us back again and again, searching for that elusive stanza of perfection

[jacob erin-cilberto]

one of the co-founders of the Black Mountain movement...I love William Carlos Williams and his abstractness that allows to go so many places with his writing...I teach two of his poems in my classes..."the red wheelbarrow" and "the widow's lament in springtime"
his poems almost always give us a two way street...we can take them in opposite directions at the same time...positive and negative.
Many many years ago when i first started writing my engineer dad was not much on the idea of me writing poetry, and showed his doubts about its worth and mine as a poet. Then at the college where he was teaching he met an English professor named Stephen Smith who was a published poet. He asked Steve his opinion of my writing...and I probably got the best compliment I have ever received...Steve said he thought my writing was like reading William Carlos Williams...far from it , i know...but it made my dad believe I was a decent poet, even though he understood very little of what i wrote.
So Williams in many ways has been important to me..."crossbows and electrically charged" is what he was and is and you capture him so well in this write.
j.

[gram linski]

thanks j. that must have been quite a boost as a young guy, the fact that both you and Eilis mention the red wheelbarrow shows what impact those few words have, glad you enjoyed this one, thanks again for the great review