knew this guy who read so much
he said it was an experience
and that it gave special insight
into the workings of people and
their lives…
he said that reading matured thought
fleshed out your thinking
created a kind of mirror
held up by the writer,
for the reader to see their lives…
I have been reading all the books
for years, and I feel I have been weak
I have joined the clique of those
who simply love all books
who love the syrup notion of writing
of being intellectual
of being cultured
of being an authority on things
reading is not experience
reading is at most a reflection
a little thinker
reading is largely useless
someone said
a generation of more readers
will destroy not only reading
but writing and thinking itself
I am not sure what they meant by that
but I often think about it
about giving everyone the ability
to do things - write think -
somehow waters down
quality of those things…
Somehow cheapens it
like thousands of immaturities
trying to be a pop star on T.V.
or grown adults trying to write
though they write like kids
naive and cringe worthy -
lonely people
in lonely houses
in lonely relationships
writing lonely poems
about lonely things
for lonely readers
in a lonely world
Did you have a ‘birth’ day recently? I detect a maturity here that I thought was absent in much of you previous work. Your language elevates the level of poetry. You get congratulations from me.
I know that I’ve been saying this a lot recently and so you’ll probably flip again and think I’m taking you on a wild goose chase but your poetry is really maturing beyond what you were doing even 6 months ago, let alone when we first met. I particularly liked:
reading is largely useless
someone said
a generation of more readers
will destroy not only reading
but writing and thinking itself
I am not sure what they meant by that
but I often think about it
The tension between your critique of reading and writing as cliquey and often futile, if not downright decadent, and your love of reading and writing is clear in this part. And it’s funny. A lot of your poems are funny.
Keep at it. Despite not being a poet, I am occasionally jealous of what and how you write.
Well thank you very much for the compliment. Glad you liked it. I actually wrote this early last year and thought I should fling it up.
There is a certain irony in this prose-poem, a sense of character, particularly in the lines:
knew this guy who read so much
he said it was an experience
[i]a generation of more readers
will destroy not only reading
but writing and thinking itself
I am not sure what they meant by that
but I often think about it [/i]
The irony lies in that I am the very result of such a claim.
-I was recently reminded today that a girl I knew described me as churlish: what an insult? I suppose this poem makes a similar point - a crass reader, boorish, ill-bred. The girl who made the claim wasn’t exactly wrong but I couldn’t help feel she had a fair amount of snobbery in her attitude.
[i]like kids
naive and cringe worthy - [/i]
once again thanks.
I’m still working on bettering my penmanship.
in a real sense all my poems and writing are about a delayment in maturation - as a device and a reality of my own.