Entry 398 — “The Tide,” a Poem Poem « POETICKS-

Entry 398 — “The Tide,” a Poem Poem

. The Tide

.            A long stare smelled its way
.            past the lantern’s purpled lisp
.            against kerosene mares radiant in
.            the prenatal barn storm
.            that Poem
.            was tearing the petals off of.
.            Behind him, the Hawaiian sidewalk
.            sidled dangerously into a canasta game,
.            like misspelled lemonade
.            remembering where the jewels were.

. The tide was later than usual.
.

I threw the above together so as to have something here. Believe it or not, I then revised it! I only changed a few lines, though.

I’m beginning to think I’ll never have a blog entry with any real content again. A real disaster, Kevin Kelly is now prowling this here territory, lookin’ for poems to throttle, and he’s brutal. I could deal with him back when he lived in or around Port Charlotte, but he’s gotten a lot meaner since he moved.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 6th, 2011 at 12:00 AM and is filed under Bob Grumman, Of Poem. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 Responses to “Entry 398 — “The Tide,” a Poem Poem”

Geof Huth says:

6 March 11 at 5:20 PM

You know that Kevin Kelly guy always reminded me of Surllama for some reason.
Bob Grumman says:

6 March 11 at 6:51 PM

I’ve always suspected they were one and the same–the two l’s in Surllama are strong evidence of it. And, of course, they are both maximally crude fellows. . . .
Kevin Kelly says:

6 March 11 at 8:17 PM

Ha, ha! Remember Todd Russell aka Huck Finch? He told me before I moved to California, something to the effect of: “Don’t let California change you, Surllama, I mean Kevin” and I remember thinking, “Nothing can change me!” … and then I became a snob. It happened about four years ago, to be exact. I’ll have to admit, it felt good to give in, like a warm bath of salt.
Kevin Kelly says:

6 March 11 at 8:20 PM

But seriously, sir, I’m trying to ONLY comment on the stuff I like (hence, the scarcity of any comments … I kid!) … and I like this here poem. I have to admit, I’ve always liked your poetry when you start talking about the tide and the phone ringing to itself, etc. My favorite line by far: “like misspelled lemonade” Good imagery! So there.
Bob Grumman says:

7 March 11 at 1:13 PM

Well, I’ve always said negative comments are more helpful than positive ones, but your positive ones have definitely been helpful. As for Huck, we’ve exchanged e.mails since you’ve left. He’s sent me invitations to the parties he yearly has, but I’ve not yet been able to get to one. You should e.mail him, or facebook him. I think he’s on Facebook.

Entry 390 — Two Poems from three Years Ago

Just about three years ago I wrote a version of the following poem:

. Poem has a question

.             Whose sleep is the sky?
.             For hours and
.             hours Poem
.             wondered.

I improved it just now by deleting its previous two last words, “about that.”

Note: I find that the day after I wrote the above, I “improved” it by adding ten or twelve lines to it. I hereby disown that version.

The following is a re-done poem I sent a year or more earlier to something going on in Mexico. I was trying to do something with the show’s theme of International friendship, or something. Barely worth keeping, I’d say but may some will enjoy it.

Note: as should be obvious from the way I strained tofind things for this entry, I’m still blah.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 26th, 2011 at 12:00 AM and is filed under Bob Grumman, Mathematical Poetry Specimen, Of Poem. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

marton koppany says:

27 February 11 at 2:25 AM

Whose sleep is the sky.

Bob Grumman says:

27 February 11 at 6:43 AM

Aah, you minimalists!

But possibly yours is an equal but different version of the poem; I like Poem physically in his poems, though, and the emphasis on the time the question intrigues him. There’s even a juxtaphor (implicit metaphor) between the motion of the sky and the motion of Poem’s wonder–for me, at any rate.

27 February 11 at 7:52 AM

It just came to my mind as a possible “answer” to Poem’s “question”. Perhaps, yes, because he was physically there.

Kevin Kelly says:

6 March 11 at 2:11 PM

I’m still working my way in reverse (top to bottom) on your blog, Bobby, so I may find more like these, but I think there’s something really interesting going on in “Mathemaku No. 21,” specifically in the figure after the minus sign. I like the possibilities with the reverse type creating new shapes inside those already created in the mashing up of letters.

6 March 11 at 3:23 PM

Thanks for the look, Kevin.

POETICKS

Category: Of Poem