"A treasure" (On dangers of publishing) [gnomic verse]
In a former life I was famous now I'm obscure
but obscurity is a treasure the famous crave
my obscurity it would seem will long endure
unless I reprehensibly misbehave
writing to obscurity no threat poses
whereas publishing is the pathway of primroses
posted by david raphael israel at 1:02 PM
8 Comments:
i like your use of space between words...
This reminded me of a blog quiz I played some months back where I was told that in an earlier life, I was female, Yugoslavian and that I had worked as an entertainer, musician, poet or temple-dancer.
Oh, the temptations of the past! ;)
Thanks Egg-O & Riv-R --
The first line of the poem might vaguely owe something to a short poem by Wang Wei (of the Tang Dynasty) -- I think it's a 4-line poem (can't locate it now); in one line he writes, "In a former life I must have been a painter" -- in the next line he says something like, "Those old habits are hard to shake". The poem may have been intended as a kind of explanation for the "painterliness" of his poetry (which tended to be filled with natural imagery and perhaps a pictorial sense). Though googling for the poem, I find this page which gives a verse from a poet of some centuries later alluding to that poem of Wang Wei's, and then also gives many poems by Wang Wei himself describing or instructing about principles of painting. So it seems he also, in his then-current life, was in fact involved with that art (not surprisingly). Still, the "In a former life" poem is I think customarily deemed as a kind of pleasantry hinting at qualities of his poetry per se.
A bit of a tangent; but I suppose I like the option of rounding up a congries of references, thoughts, tangents (in the annotation-tolerant space of one's own commentary-box).
Back to my poem though -- I'm lately interested in a view of blogging as a form of publishing per se: not simply an adjunct to printed publication, really a wholly alternative channel that itself constitutes publishing (or if you prefer, "broadcasting") literary work, making it available for an audience quite as legitimately and realistically as has, in pre-21st century times, been done (for a mere few centuries, largely speaking) via mass reproduction of printed texts. This is a topic I may return to in future. It merits pondering.
is it possible to write a silent poem?
Some may try -- but who will bring us news of the result?
the wordless poem dwells in a realm beyond the ear's location
the wordless is the silent, yes?
all words are wrapped around with silence --
the medium in which they subsist
they're chisled from its substance
they stand on the stage & smile
they fall back into its darkness
regroup, reform, refine
Hey David,
You experiment with so many forms of poetry. Are you also familiar with the languages they're associated with?
Opie,
Besides English, the only (alas) languages I've some reading ability in (with extensive help of dictionaries) are Chinese and Italian. But poetic forms are always moving across language borders, in our ever-more-kalaidescoping world.
cheers,
d.i.
Blogging IS publication. I started my blog precisely on that assumption.
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