04-09-2026, 12:39 AM
I salute the sun at dawn in spring, and I clasp my hands at dusk in fall. I used to do all four stations of the sun each day. Now only what is appropriate to each season.
In myth-making mode, I spread through poems fragments of a whole. Sometimes pushing the fragments as far as can be without breaking.
Same with each season, and mood, laying store what's out of season for what will be in season.
Putting in seed here, which may seem eccentric and out of place, may, if successful, make sense later, or have had made sense before.
That's the spirit of the poem.
With short poems, rather than actual length on the page, I look at how the spirit of a short poem allows for a raw or at least spontaneous aesthetic, if aesthetic at all. Otherwise, more prosy or unnecessary words, in an aesthetic sense, as you say, would be a hindrance.
So, two things: Your instincts are legitimate, as you know. And I don't salute each morning, only in spring; which makes sense if you allow for the fragmented nature, though it weaken the poem, and its place in them apparently absent whole.
Sometimes, much of the time, poems, for me, are more valuable as excuses to give these prose "explanations".
In myth-making mode, I spread through poems fragments of a whole. Sometimes pushing the fragments as far as can be without breaking.
Same with each season, and mood, laying store what's out of season for what will be in season.
Putting in seed here, which may seem eccentric and out of place, may, if successful, make sense later, or have had made sense before.
That's the spirit of the poem.
With short poems, rather than actual length on the page, I look at how the spirit of a short poem allows for a raw or at least spontaneous aesthetic, if aesthetic at all. Otherwise, more prosy or unnecessary words, in an aesthetic sense, as you say, would be a hindrance.
So, two things: Your instincts are legitimate, as you know. And I don't salute each morning, only in spring; which makes sense if you allow for the fragmented nature, though it weaken the poem, and its place in them apparently absent whole.
Sometimes, much of the time, poems, for me, are more valuable as excuses to give these prose "explanations".