on the poem

To me the poem is a constant state of transition. Every poem, every poetic era in my writing is a point of transition. Once I have reached a point or achieved a poetic goal I move on. There have been times where I have felt I have reached a certain quality in writing. Those moments were ones in which the transition has been the greatest.

One of the goals I have had in verse is to be able to trim down so that I can write a poem that says what I want to say in the fewest words. Though the subject has an importance the craft of writing has a high importance.

To write the perfect poem is not the goal. Once a poem is written, although it may suffer a few tweaks here and there I often go on and write another one. You may see the same poem in another one written soon after or later. Not only is the perfect poem not a goal it is a distraction. There is a certain value in the so called imperfections in a poem.

There was a time when a friend told me that I had found my voice in my poetry. At the time my reaction was to pursue radically changing my voice. Now, since that was a time where I was pursuing a new career and my son's were demanding more of my time the writing sat on the back burner. When that career was well established and my son's were a little older and the thoughts of how I could change the were more established I experimented with some different forms (always remembering how I had written before).

At one point as a method to force myself to be a better writer I started a blog and was determined to write a poem for every day. I did that for a year exactly. It did a few things. First I think I improved. Next I moved closer to the goal in writing shorter verse. I started writing a short form verse. Here is one.

I touch) you (touch me
this spark beauty -
in this mask

I can't say that I have arrived. If I do I will probably change again, but I don't' plan on waiting over ten years again.

My goal will always be always be moving on and up.

Here are the first two poems I wrote on the blog.

stands on something
turn to peer
missing this

------

and then he looks
walk a few steps
turn a head aside

do you have it
I am not your other

step away
pocket hand
a healthy stride

They lied to us - slow and steady, or fast and easy?

They lied to us. They told us that slow and sure was the way to go. You remember the story of the Tortoise and the Hare. In the story the hare is sure of himself and races on ahead of the tortoise. The hare knows he will win and takes a nap only to find that while he was sleeping the tortoise wins.

In life we are supposed to do the job right and take the slow and steady course. Unfortunately in real life the people who matter (or think they matter) will always pick the person who appears to be doing well and criticizing the one who takes it slow, but makes sure to do the job right.

I don't know how many times I have worked at a job that is more concerned about impression and had no concern for substance. The management even invites cheating. They tell the workers that they are looking at performance numbers. Do you know how easy it is to make the numbers look good, but not do a good job. Unfortunately I don't. I have always tried to do the job right. For years I didn't even know that I was failing in the eyes of the bosses. Now I know, but I just can't bring myself to cheat.

Another way that we are taking the fast way to cheat is in our finances. I am sure that people are wondering why we are in the financial mess we are in. Everything that we have done with our finances where we are making money or getting things quickly have contributed to the problem. There are a few exceptions. The company that finds that one thing that everyone wants (a story, a web site, a TV show...), and they make it rich quickly. The problem is that is the exception and not the rule. People buy things that they don't need (I have never paid more than $200 dollars for a TV). Take a second on their house to take a vacation.

Companies get into the same trouble and try to make it big too fast. Wall Street and the Banks also got into the act. The most interesting thing is that they are surprised that we are in the worst economic time since the great depression. I remember the great internet bubble a few years ago. I actually got involved in that. I knew that it was a big bubble that was ready to burst, but I also knew that the internet was something that would last. I also worked for internet companies that were into selling on the internet. I wanted to know that side of the business. I wasn't doing it so I could become rich (not that I would have turned down the money).

So in the long run slow and steady will win the race. The Hares got rich and fat and didn't see the crash coming. The tortoises saw it coming, but who listens to us. I understand why they want to fix it quick. It is like a patient who is brought into the emergency room. At first the doctors are taking drastic measures to save his life. Next they rush him to the operating room and perform emergency. This is a little less drastic, but still they are taking extreme measures. After that the patient is given drugs and treatment that is temporary and will bring him back to a somewhat normal state. Unfortunately we will stop right here in our financial mess. We may even stop at the Operating Room step. There is a third step. We need to change our lifestyle. The patient needs to eat right, exercise and get good sleep.

This will not happen. Our world is not ready to stop being excessive in how it spends, in its lifestyle. Our government won't let it happen. Big business won't let it happen. The rich won't let it happen. We need power. We need to keep big companies big and powerful. We need to keep the rich and help them to get richer. They need to do it fast and easy. Slow and steady is for losers - but not for me, I'll still go slow and easy, doing it right as best I can.