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Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Process

I sometimes wonder how anything becomes a poem. It frustrates me. And sometimes I feel certain that whatever I did in the past to transform a few random groupings of words collected from God knows where into poetry I'll never do again.

For the last couple of days, I've been looking over a series of notes I made a few years after my father died. They're about his art and about his need to tell stories that defined who he was. They're about how the stories became more important as he got closer to death. And they're about not listening to them and forgetting them. They're about watching football with him eight months before he died. And they're about the nothingness we come from, are born into, and move toward.

Some of the notes are broken up into lines, as if they were originally meant to be a poem. And as I read the notes, I can hear and feel the poem that's there. But I can't make it happen. It frustates me. But it's what I do.

7 comments:

  1. Sometimes prose (such as these) can be powerful too... the memories that you shared of your father moved me.

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  2. I agree that there is a poem there and will love to read it when you're able to write it.

    I also agree with Marty. Your second paragraph is beautiful and moving.

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  3. The words will all melt together when you are ready. Wonderful to have the lil notes, to remind you of the special times, and of the special poems to come.

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  4. I am back!!

    And i can sooo relate to this!!

    But I would say that for me, poem is something that happens own its own....
    It grips me and then I have to write down...

    I love writing poems, but I simply cannot make it happen, if I sit and decide to write down...

    So maybe, it will grow on you..
    creep in when you least expect!!
    :)

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  5. Your poem is gestating :) Be patient and take your vitamins.

    You will get it when you get it.
    A famous Yogi said that.
    Ok it was Yogi Berra.

    These Yogi quotes will make you laugh.

    I never blame myself when I'm not hitting. I just blame the bat and if it keeps up, I change bats. After all, if I know it isn't my fault that I'm not hitting, how can I get mad at myself?

    Always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't come to yours.

    If you come to a fork in the road, take it.

    If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.

    You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I'm not hungry enough to eat six.

    And lastly...

    If the world was perfect, it wouldn't be.

    I hope these make you chuckle Grandpa...

    Sometimes a little levity helps.

    Peace - Rene

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  6. Thanks, Rene. I really needed that. And I love Yogi quotes. They pick me up faster than anything I know. I can always count on you to put things into perspective.

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  7. I cannot relate as I do not consider myself anything creative, especially in writing. But I dwelt on what you said...nothingness. Do you really believe we start, join, and head toward nothingness? Because all the things you listed about your father seem to have SOMEthing....just a pondering.

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