Friday Nite Poetry: From The Ant Hill To Olympus

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This blueprint of what La Belle would have loo...

This blueprint of what La Belle would have looked like was created in the 20th century, after excavation. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Welcome back, gentle readers, sorry there has not been a Friday Nite Poetry in a couple of weeks. Hardware problems have been vexing me and they are hopefully solved for some little while. You all already now about my fundraiser, and I will say no more about that besides the quick reminder.

What I will speak of is how easy it is to forget how truly amazing we are as a species. We have walked the moon, cured diseases, and for all the horror we have visited on each other, we have often raised each other up as well. We have a long way to go to realize our potential. We still get quite a lot of the easy problems wrong. We display a profound ability to make the simple complex and the complex simple. Still, I see a bright future, somewhere out there, it just may take longer to reach than we would like. We are all amazing, each and every one of the seven billion plus of us. We just need to be reminded from time to time. Continue reading →

Friday Nite Poetry: The Verse That Time Lost

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Prehistoric man, Anthropos Museum, Brno, Czech...

Prehistoric man, Anthropos Museum, Brno, Czech Republic (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Last year, my good friend and mentor (yes I will always address him as such, as I have here in the past) Tom Holmes introduced me to paleo-poetics. Poetry about the experiences of prehistoric man, or about our understanding of him. We discussed this at length one evening, and by the end of the evening we came up with our own subset of paleo-poetics: neo-paleopoetry. It is something of an unintentionally ironic term as one of the rules we came up with for this new style was a ban on using any idea that would be completely out of place in the prehistoric man’s world. No mention of steel, bureaucracies or any invention, real or abstract, after the advent of the written word. We have both put out a few pieces and I even have a tag for it on Tumblr. Tonight I share my three newest pieces, and I hope they succeed, if not sterling examples of neo-paleopoetry, then as passable samples of paleo-poetics. Continue reading →

Friday Nite Poetry: Welcome to Black History Month

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English: Black History Mural, Reading This sho...

English: Black History Mural, Reading This shows about half the mural which is on the side of the Central Club in London Street. It was painted in 1990 by Alan Howard and members of the club. The building behind, now the Great Expectations Hotel, is the former Everyman Theatre. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Five hundred years have gone by. Five hundred years of chattel slavery followed by brutal discrimination and demonizing. Half a millenia of erasure, excuses, hand wringing, and self-righteous, selfish argument. After all that, so many white people, not just in America, but around the world think wishing it all away is enough. We clap our hands and mouth “we love our black brothers and sisters” and think that does away with the systemic barriers created by five centuries of abuse. Continue reading →

Friday Nite Poetry: Adding It All Up

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Graph of example function,

Graph of example function, (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Some time back I did a little exercise using different number series or the digits of important irrational numbers as guides to the meter I would use in my poems. I called this series the Elohim, based on the idea that some people call mathematics the language of God. I bring these here for the first time. I hope you enjoy. Oh, and don’t forget, if you reblog this, or any other Friday Nite Poetry post, I will send you the link to a pdf of my chapbook, The Delicate Art of Saying Yes. Continue reading →

Friday Nite Poetry: Passing Strange

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Paper Weaving

Paper Weaving (Photo credit: FeatheredTar)

So folks, I am going to do something I have never done on this blog before. I am going to write a few new poems (I don’t know how many) as I go in posting this. I hope you enjoy them. I cannot promise they won’t end up weird, as I am in a weird sort of mood. Also, I would like to add a little incentive to all my followers out there. Anyone who reblogs, links, or retweets this post so I can showcase my two wonderful books for sale (eyes to the right of your screen, gentle readers) will receive a link to a free pdf of my chapbook “The Delicate Art of Saying Yes.” Now, back to those potentially strange poems: Continue reading →