The Poets' Graves Workshop

I really, really like this, Mic. The philosophising flies over my head and the editorial about it in the last line of S1 is self-conscious and a definite dump for me. I'd get rid. The E.g. would need to go too. beloved seems like quite an elderly term to use. Especially as you end, rather splendidl...

OwenEdwards wrote:

Ros wrote:I agree it's the 'thing' that makes this unique - but still not totally convinced... I like the idea of exploring losing identity further, though.

I would echo this. To be a glorious failure is still to be glorious.

Indeed!

Mic

I agree it's the 'thing' that makes this unique - but still not totally convinced... I like the idea of exploring losing identity further, though. Will look out for the result! Ros I think it's a like it/get it or don't really like it/ don't much get it at all sort of a poem. I'm close to feeling i...

I think the thing-thing works, without considering the eastern spirituality, as a classic piece of mind-body dualism for me, and captures the weirdness of experience. Possibly I'm parodying myself by suggesting that you finish on beloved - the last three lines add nothing (ha!) for me - but very we...

Antcliff wrote:I liked it as well, Mic...including the odd "thing" thing.

Curiously sixties in feel....a legs open, legs apart display being a "happening".

Seth

Thanks Seth! Legs akimbo ARE a 'happening'

Macavity wrote:hi mic
Loved the form. Loved the poem - a lot. Possible quibble...experiencing/experience...one is enough. I'd definitely keep the lavenders...gives balance.


cheers

mac

Thanks Mac!

OwenEdwards wrote:I think the "-thing" thing is a glorious failure. I appreciate the intent, applaud its consistency, but cannot say I believe it succeeded.

Thanks for the candid response Owen!

I know I've commented on this elsewhere, Michaela, but I'll comment here too, just to keep things tidy. Nicely done! It's a sinuous piece that draws us in and out of the poem, I particuarly like S2 (I'm always up for a bit of meta-poetry). I wonder how you feel about dissolving the boundaries furth...

Hi Mic, I like the poem in essence but for me the repetition of 'thing' ruins it....is it necessary? Here's how it might look edited: This head-thing attached to this body-thing experiencing that lavender over there - its blueness against the whiteness of the wall is thinking about sameness. E.g. t...

I liked it more before I read the explanation. Reminded me of cummings. The spiritual nonsense didn't even register. Take of that as you will. Always nice to read you. B. Ignore the explanation! I've just been thinking recently about the idea of non-duality as a way of conceptualising (?) / underst...

All that philosophising aside, this is basically hoping to be a love poem.

Mic

But doesn't that imply that everything has some consciousness in it? Which is what I'd probably dispute. Or are you saying walls are formed because of consciousness? The walls (according to Advaita thinking) aren't really here. There is no 'here'. There is 'no-one' , 'no-thing'. But Advaita thinker...

although it isn't consciousness arising from walls, but rather that walls/everything is simply an expression of indivisible consciousness 'arising'!

Er....

Yep.

Mic

Thanks Ros! 'one without second' is from Advaita (non-duality) in which everything (the 'beloved') is arising in 'no-thing' - the idea that nothing is 'separate', or perhaps that all is interconnected. Tricky always to express as language has embedded in it the idea of subject and object (Advaita 'c...

David wrote:Massively disappointed by the Teutonic efficiency of your system, John. I assumed that, if you did anything at all, you simply wrote the names of your poems on fallen leaves and let the wind do your filing.

Hahahahahaha!

x

This head-thing attached to this body-thing experiencing that lavender-thing over there - its blueness against the whiteness of the wall-thing - is thinking about the sameness of all things. E.g. these finger-things, indistinguishable from this pen and from memory of the experience (last summer, now...

For those of you who can't keep track, there's this (but it costs a bit a month) https://duotrope.com/index.aspx?bp=subtracker I keep my submissions in a little red cash (ha ha!) book, although I have made embarrassing mistakes (e.g. Michael McKminn sp?) at Rialto said he was sure he'd already seen ...

You're good, aren't you!

Lovely

Mic

Thanks Mac, Brian (good to see you around!), Seth, David and Jane

Mic

I've got this one in issue 73 (April)

viewtopic.php?f=44&t=16320&p=131168#p131168

Hurray!

Mic

Hi kj

On my first reading of this I was absolutely transported by the first two stanzas - really thoroughly enjoyed moving through them for the first time. I wasn't so keen on the third.

Will read again and try to come back with some more thoughts.

Mic

I remember reading thee. They are all really good.

Mic

Well done Seth.

Yes, I think I'm in the June edition. Turns out I've met Martin Malone - he was a runner-up in the Pighog Press/Poetry School pamphlet competition, and he read at the event where we announced the winner (Kate Whyte)

Mic