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BLOG #5: “JUPITER DEVOURING HIS SON (FRANCISCO GOYA)”

I ate myself—went nowhere 
 somewhere no longer travels:
 my belly. And how you expect— me not to eat you when I was starving —eat you nameless children who
 sing Tartarus until herebefores
 become neglected hereafters.
 They are my flesh, after all—
 can I not do with “me” as “me” please?
 My body. My own divine body
 does not make me sick to think 
 eating myself might taste as fine
 as someone else matured with time
 if given space to salt their life
 with life’s breath; peppered, wrinkled foreheads 
 flavored best with innocence—enough life for me to enjoy dinner 
 now. Who said you must eat your own flesh well-done?
 I burp—then barf.

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BLOG #4: "What Is Poetry?"

I don’t “know” what poetry is. I believe its more than just words and phrases strung together according to conventional/unconventional literary devices. Honestly, I don’t even attempt to define poetry. I just assume that I know poetry when I read it, and that good poetry makes me feel a certain way or teach me something important, and that masterful poetry makes me feel the way the poet wants or learn something that impresses something meaningful on my soul. My inadequacies may be because I’ve never studied it formally. Matter-of-fact, I can’t even read poetry—trying to determine stress from unstress syllables seems virtually impossible. 

So, I don’t “know” what poetry is. It’s just, sometimes I like poetry. And if I’m really up for it, I attempt to produce it.

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BLOG #1: “What Do I Need For Creativity?”

Hands In Two Pockets, represents my thoughts on my creativity’s need:

“God,

i keep your hands in two pockets; thank you, it must have hurt to cleave them from their sockets to give me ways to create from Platonics pieces so lovely only your hands could accomplish; pieces so lovely from hands i stuff in two pockets.”

I pray. Maybe God provides me creativity for the day? If he does, wonderful; I’ll do my best with the gift. If he doesn’t, understood; I’ll pray again tomorrow. This is my personal view of what I need to be creative: a relationship with God. For me, creativity isn’t so much my ability or talent. Rather, it’s whether God has a plan for me being creative; if He does, then I’ll be as creative that day as He wants for me to be. Because this is my personal view, I just ask Him for creativity before I began creating and even during the creation process. In saying this, I personally never attempt to create anything without having confidence that God is with me; that God is willing to help me. Obviously, I can't know God’s providence or when He works in any specific sense (outside of what’s revealed scripturally), but I trust that if I’m in a good relationship with Him then He’ll happily supply my creativity needs. For this reason, Hands In Two Pockets, is about God giving me what I need to create (i.e., His “hands”). This is not suggesting that I create things on a level that is God-like. No, that’s ridiculous. Rather, it’s a poem about how I need Him because my “hands” can’t and couldn’t do the job; but, with His “hands,” all creativity is possible.

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BLOG #3: “Math (of Haiku)”

Math (of Haiku), probably my favorite poem among my poems, is an attempt to explain elements of a traditional haiku and fulfill the requirements of a traditional haiku while arguing for mathematic’s natural place in the natural world. My goal in writing this poem was to put more words on the page than three symbols could contain.

Read:

“Root of twenty-five”  “Seven times a single one” “Root of twenty-five”

How do I attempt to “explain an element of a traditional haiku”?

A: Though a bit of a stretch, a fundamental contribution to the construction of this poem was my attempt to “explain” at least one part of the traditional haiku by the root of each mathematical symbol. In this case, I wanted to explain the seventeen, five-seven-five, syllable pattern. My plan was to use the roots of each symbol to suggest this format.

For example: (a) “the square root of 25” is “5”; (b) “7 to the power of 1” is “7”; (c) “the square root of 25” is “5”.

In addition to each root post-shadowing how many syllables are used in each individual line in which the root is placed, when the roots of each line come together, it outlines the five-seven-five syllable pattern of the entire haiku. So, in this sense, I attempt to “explain an element of a traditional haiku.”

How do I attempt to “fulfill the requirements of a traditional haiku”?

A: This might be bit of a stretch as well. Another fundamental contribution to the construction of this poem was my attempt to “fulfill” the general poetics of the traditional haiku by using modern thought and naturalistic language to describe the natural scene around me.

When I say “modern thought,” I mean our contemporary thoughts about what constitutes as “nature.” For many philosophers and artists, mathematics is nature. When I say “naturalistic language,” I mean my use of natural images such as “root” and “time” to illustrate the mathematical symbols “root of 25” and “7 to the power of 1”. And when I say “to describe the natural scene around me,” it more suggests the natural scene in my head—as mathematics, if natural and a part of nature (which I suggest is the case in the poem), are not physical realities but abstract realities of our thoughts.  

From my limited understanding, haikus are about nature as perceived through the senses. So, if I was to write a haiku rather than a general, short poem, I had to discuss nature by describing a natural scene through at least one cerebral faculty. For me, I wanted to discuss the nature of math by describing it by natural images—what do you think about when you think of “root” or “time(s)”? (Likely, something natural)—through sensing space and movement and sight.

Again, this might be a stretch. But, to me, spatial recognition and sense of movement are elements of the physical senses. Moreover, “sight,” to me, goes farther than cornea reception (“eyeball seeing”)—else, if a poet who could once see went blind, that poet would not be able to justifiably write a haiku (as all his imagery would no longer come from actually “eyeball seeing” nature but would come from Platonic imageries of nature).  

How do I argue “for mathematic’s natural place in the natural world”?

A: I believe my argument presents itself in my earlier answers. Whether or not I agree with my argument that mathematics is a part of nature or the natural world, is beside the point; I argue that it is. 

I hope y’all enjoyed the poem!

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BLOG #2: “Yahweh”

Yahweh, a biblical portrait inspired by Shelley’s Ozymandias. Please, enjoy.

I heard a minister read an antique book, who said: “Two planks, and barren nails of rock, Lean on a Hill… Beyond them, a certain stone, Fully rolled: inside, folded cloth, whose wearer, And frail body, did lay unveiled of sin and pain; To tell that a carpenter well learned in compassion Is yet alive; judging the immortal frames by Hands many yet mock—a heart that feeds The wandering soul, by words when in their heart settles: ‘My name is YAHWEH, Lord of Lords, Behold my Works, ye Mighty, and obey!’ All things yet remain. Soon to decay. When at the Wreckage shall be fastened, and all naked And afraid; why wait until that Great and Notable Day?”