e e sonnet

e e sonnet

there is a documentary you can find

on e e cummings, and it has his voice

recorded so just like yeats his slow

enunciation is one long whine in

some attempt at artistic gravitas but

to my cynical ear it seems like slow

unpunctuated hypocrisy full of sound

without fury i think of the troubled

times of those who dragged themselves

from the evolutionary mud of thought

without meaning, ginsberg ferlinghetti,

pollock, e e and the insult of hunter s

thompsons self destruction when nothing

made sense unless it was senseless sounds

made by one hand clapping until even sex

was stuck in its own rut

there was a professor who once told

me it is the job of every poet to murder

the generation that came before

I think deep underground where they

now lie they have rolled over and are

thankful for our coup d gras

Reviews

[emmajoygreen]

Some write poetry with a sincere nib, others merely jot down letters. Perhaps surprise or deja vu is part of the poetic gift; words can fall out of the air as sublime letters or appear back to front or upside down shapes. Think twenty six letters as a gleaming rainbow but five letters as not even a faded gift. Plus like a piece of clothing, no matter the cloth, the garment can hang poorly around not body but mind.

Your poetry beckons reaction, calls for thought of any kind or unkind. Plus you invite folk to go back to the beginning and juggle just how one's interpretation can be different from what was intended. Words are powerful in that they have a way of nudging.. ..

[Vol]

Joy,
There you are, I have missed you, and hope the air is clearing for you. All writing is an act of creation and therefore of deep value. There are those who bleed their emotions onto paper, and those who just want to try their hand. I think it is a sign of the times that quantity is more important than quality, I guess, I take it very seriously and want everyone to do so as well. If what we are doing was painting instead of poetry, putting our unskilled beginning attempts on public display would be more considered. I love teaching others what I have learned. In the mean time, terrible writing is still writing, and a noble creative act.
4:00 AM is awful, it is only 10, here, but it has been a tornado for this whole week, and I am tired to the bone.
Vol

[W. Barrett Munn]

Vol—

My take is this should be a haibun. A great haiku to deepen the meaning would make it really sing.

Winston

[Vol]

Winston,
I see your point, never heard of a haibun, though... I'm considering... This popped immediately to mind...
"Listen for silence, a voice
from deep inside the well of
what we do not know."
I did not think those lines into existence, they were born whole. I'm considering... it's no kind of image... and may not even relate...
Vol

[W. Barrett Munn]

The haibun combines narrative with a haiku. For the haiku think juxtaposition, 2 things that create a 3rd thing

[S.zaynab.kamoonpury]

A strong worded poem , an intrigue! Poets are supposed to enliven generations than murder . Kudos!

Plz also read and comment my newest poem too

[redd Brick Keshner]

That gives so much credence of our fellowship and continued dialog with those that have gone before us and hopefully will vibrantly continue as our dialogue begins with those that would come after us 🕊️🙏🏻

[Vol]

Redd,
I'm not sure how to express my thoughts about this "open mic" approach to publishing. Poetry began as a village method of record-keeping. Its purpose was to glorify exploits in battle and hunting, or any other notable heroism. Around the campfire, it was a means of creating a common history for tribal unity. I doubt they were very literary, but incredibly important to a group's identity. In a very real sense nothing has changed. As a young scholar, I was a little surprised to learn how much of history is preserved in the arts. We look back on borders, wars, and the VIPs, and those people, places and things for information about why today is what it is. But we look to architecture, painting, sculpture, and literature to see WHY we are as we are. My petty complaint is, there needs to be a separate category for personal poetry, as opposed to Universal poetry. Bouncy, rhyming, “Hallmark” verse about how someone was mistreated by their lover is a waste of time for everybody else, and not something we should have to wade through to find the gold. Actually, it is the sole purpose of any important poetry to reflect the whole culture and the world where it finds itself. To comment on its achievements and failures and to offer a bit of wisdom. Poetry is much too important a genre to be so watered down.
Vol

[redd Brick Keshner]

Glad you have and are addressing that, Vol. Many literati have in fact never published their personal poetry I suspect for the same reasons you have just spelt out. Our access to the is posthumous and not as separate pieces or as poetic publication in their essence. 🕊️🙏🏻

[John the Baptist]

Indeed, Vol, the 20th century saw the rise of poets who gloried in "senseless sounds." They took the art away from the average person, who could not understand them. Their guiding spirit was Ezra Pound, who urged other poets to do "something new." The rest is history.

[Vol]

John,
Thanks, Man, I always enjoy your reviews...
I think the first forty or so years of the Twentieth Century was the richest period for the arts since the Renaissance, but Modernism after that, melted into something unrecognizable by those geniuses.
You know, sometimes I wonder about how passionately I feel about any genre of art or philosophy attributed to the Post-Moderns. If Pound influenced them, it was because they weren’t smart enough to know what he was saying. The rest was indeed, History… a sad one.
Pound was also a guiding spirit for T. S. Eliot, and was most influential during the Modern Age. He founded the Imagists including W, C. Williams, D. H. Lawrence, and numerous others. After that rich and diverse era, the Post-Moderns were an undisciplined, talentless bunch indeed, too dumb to understand that “something new did not mean shallow and devoid of depth, much less wisdom. It was a legitimate statement for them to say "nothing has meaning," but it is not legitimate for that to be the ONLY thing they could contribute. I mean, you can dribble paint on a giant canvas ONCE and you've shot your whole wad. Do it again, and prove you just have no skill with a brush. I know it is only my opinion but I feel insulted by the glorification of a wholly despicable crowd who wasted themselves trying to sew New Clothes for the Emperor... but GOT AWAY WITH IT! "Oh, you don't understand Pollock? Why you must not be very smart." Modernism is my main study; those were thinkers on a mission to save Western Civilization. On the other hand, I've yet to find even a single, meaningful contribution by the P-Ms to human society and culture. I doubt Pound's " Something New" was intended to foster the likes of Ferlingetti's "Naked Lunch," or poetry reminiscent of what a room looks like after being ransacked by teenagers on acid. Worse than their silence of “one hand clapping” is the howling of Yoko Ono. I cannot even imagine why anyone would want to study anything the P-Ms "created," because one afternoon in the library would be more than sufficient.
The worst of it is, what’s left of Academia, doesn’t know the whole movement was shot in the head by Bukowski, who showed us EVERYTHING has meaning, even when crude.

[ETERNITY]

I think Bukowski rarely used capital letters. Anyway, I did listen to the e e Cummings and it was zzzzzzzzz. Yep, it needs murdering, lol.

[Vol]

Eternity,
He was an exceptionally articulate pig of a man, abusive to women, trashy apartments, and an angry alcoholic.
Vol

[ETERNITY]

Vol, are you referring to e e Cummings? or Bukowski?

[Vol]

Bukowski... He was a strong influence on Raymond Carter who (my opinion) was a much better poet who wrote in the same vein. I am familiar with Bukowski's tragic youth, and understand how that could sour your whole life, but give it a break... settle down, take responsibility... Jeez.
Vol ;-)

[ETERNITY]

Vol, True...But what if you CAN'T? The Bible says, "Give me a child for the first six years and I'll have them for LIFE." I've read his bio, Vol, I think he desperately wanted to change but he couldn't even write until he had his booze, cigs, and it was after 5 pm. He thought he didn't have a problem but read Linda Bukowski's bio. (I adore you.) as an author ;)

[Michael Sun Bear]

What an interesting poem. I love that you and Thomas Case have such a respect for the writers that came before us, even if you don’t really enjoy every one. Your remarks about the recordings of ee cummings and Yeats reminds of the time I attended a very large Sufi gathering where the spiritual leader spoke in these really slow solemn tones with big gaps as if he was tuned into another spiritual dimension, then he had everyone do an exercise, supposedly demonstrating a truth about reality, that due to my science background, as well as extensive reading about the fakirs of India, I knew to be a carnival trick. I was disgusted. And boy, after reading Lorry’s review, I’m sure glad I capitalized my pen name.

[Vol]

Michael,
Things today have become rather nebulous, have lost their substance, their depth, and their true meaning. Our whole throw-away society builds nothing worthy of preservation. The American attention span is 8.25 SECONDS! Everything seems to be as empty as air. Nothing to see, nothing to believe in, unthinking, and shallow. "Poets" who do not read, who have no vocabulary, who dwell on their own sadness(too shallow for angst). Today, if you want to find beauty, meaning, and depth, you have to do it yourself. And when you do, good luck finding someone who understands, much less cares. But that should not matter, do it anyway, chin up, proud, and if you have to, throw it in their face.
Vol

[Einstein Noodle]

i'm not much of a student of poetry or any other written form of creativity ... but i respect it .. and my favorite part of your write is
"there was a professor who once told
me it is the job of every poet to murder
the generation that came before" .... it just kinda cracks me up and sounds true to the core .. when i think about it ... at least in my youth ... we murdered a whole lot of things besides ... a few turned out ok but, again .. reflecting on it back in the 60s .. there has been some changes that are not so "groovy" .. nice write .. fierce, knowledgeable, impales our sense of what's what in the world of poetry .. nice stuff Vol!
E.

[Vol]

Thank you, Einstein,
I bet if you looked on Wikipedia, you might get a nice outline of what the Modern generation were about as opposed to the Post Moderns. It is a favorite study of mine. I can't right now, but if you would like to see my thoughts, i'd be happy to explain.
Vol

[Einstein Noodle]

i will do a mini on Post Modern Poets .. not sure i am familiar with any .. i have enjoyed those beats tho .. a lot of whom you have mentioned .. i just enjoyed reading them .. have to check out ferlinghetti :)

[Vol]

The Moderns are a worthy study, anyone from T.S. Eliot to William Carlos Williams.. the list is endless. The moderns include Picasso, O'Keefe, Dali as artists, Existential philosophy. The post-moderns were those I listed and Ferlingetti, Jackson Pollock, mostly nonsense, purposely meaningless, and a waste of time. I hate them! I hate that Academia doesn't know it is a dead movement, shot in the head by the likes of Charles Bukowski. The Moderns looked for ways to create meaning, the Post-Moderns denied there was such a thing, today, we say EVERYTHING has meaning.
If you can find a Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, it is an invaluable resource...
Vol
Vol

[Einstein Noodle]

thanks man!

[Lorry]

I've always mistrusted people who don't use capital letters in their names. Its meant to look like they are inferior but I reckon they think themselves superior.
He'd certainly appear more gangster if he became 3 3 Cummings, but maybe not as i doubt he'd be able to pull that off.
I wish I had your professor mate. Dexter would have been an entirely different show with that piece of advice! 😃

[Vol]

Lorry,
I can see that in our correspondence. There is nothing more irritating than pretentiousness. People with tiny souls looking in on the real world with no idea how to really fit in.
Vol

[Thomas W Case]

Brilliant work. You nailed it.

[Vol]

You know, Thomas, there is something a little gut twisting and painful when so many people might be able to write if they could only trust their own voice. Instead they say "thee, thou, Dr. Souse's Anapestic pentameter like Dr. Souse, center justify, and way too often, abandon all pretense of grammar and punctuation.
Vol