the last post in my last blog entry I listed a number of ‘modes’ for the composition of a poem the peripatetic, the here-and-now view, the political – the bearing witness mode (was where I got stuck) it seems like a hundred years ago I was in Hong Kong, worrying about Hong Kong… though we should still all be worried about Hong Kong … and now I’m home – and that is a very distracting way to be (more on that in a minute)… nevertheless I promised a poem in the annotation mode what is it, you ask, a poem in the annotation mode? It is a response drafted on the page to an existing poem, already in print … i.e. it’s scribble in the margins you could type up later to make a poem and that new poem would have some relationship to the original poem from which you were working / to which you are responding a lot of people worry that this kind of thing will lead to plagiarism and of course it could if you were careless or that way inclined … my principle with this kind of work is however simply ‘in the presence so a poem comes’ i.e. spend time with good poems in order to make a good poem yourself …a lot of what I produce in the way of annotations is only vaguely connected with the original poem… however when I think there’s a chance of an actual response I could call a response, then I put the word ‘after’ at the top of the page I’m working on let me give you a quick example almost at random from out of the mighty pile of already annotated books of poems that need attention (need their annotations typed up to see if they can be poems), seeing the word ‘after’ at the top of the page I picked from Shuntaro Tanikawa’s lovely little Vagabond book (thanks Michael Brennan and friend) a little poem called ‘Mere Words’, which starts Having turned into mere words, the mountain is dimly squatting. The port under an overcast sky is thinking of something. and so now, for you, let’s see if I can conjure up a poem from my annotations responding, more or less, to this idea
after the words things, happenings silences more brutal dinner lunch breakfast back to sleep came from words to here but fold in armed with sweet saying somewhat less the record shows like a world spun once too many breath after breath staged so much of it has gone on in words despite over and under mute truth of themselves reflected in a page pale air there’s nothing proud about the mountain and it’s all standing still testament – our admiration but everything on it’s moving, alive thinking – where next, where’s home that’s pretty close to just the notes of the page but I’ve played with their order a bit … it’s now a draft to come back to and I think I can call it a response because it does speculate along the lines Tanikawa was speculating … so I think this gives you an idea of how the annotation mode could work for you … maybe you want to respond to my response? you see how this is a kind of open-ended conversation? I guess the thing about the modes is that the best thing is to invent your own if you can afford to… people who say that they don’t read other people’s stuff cause they don’t want to be influenced … well, they’re not really poets… to be a poet you have to be constantly studying the craft… the only way to be a poet is to make poems; the only way to make poems is to be constantly learning from everything around you and especially from the poems that are everywhere around you if you care to listen and look … and be discerning of course… remember there’s more good poetry being written in the world today than ever before (reams of it every day) and as a natural consequence, there’s more bad stuff too… it would be caveat emptor if anyone ever got paid for the stuff * anyway with being at home, here’s the thing, I did truly distract myself… for instance I wrote a recipe poem which I was going to include here, but there wasn’t room… but that led me to think what a nice anthology that could be … a collection of recipe poems by Australian poets… one thing leads to another… and remember Sterne –‘digression is the sunshine of the text’… because I kept coming back to the to-do list … very important … that’s how I remembered to do the annotation work for you… and here to finish (and to emphasise the importance and value of distraction and how often you should just go with it) are two drafts (from last night and this morning) which are simply in the here-and-now observation mode (or observation and action, I could say, in the case of the fire poem) 1307 pile burning (midwinter thing) little sun we make to chase around and backs to can revolve could chase a fire like that all day better to start with dusk clocks gone home hard to know what to let no hard edges here but that the day runs out watch stand smoke aside and mainly just be watchful breeze attentive have a bucket for the symbol you don’t want this in summer don’t want the fuel around the pile gets going you think what can we add? what has to go? stars fall and stars spin up (other poems are full of them – throw old poems on) it falls in on itself needs feeding we find a leant-up decaying door I suspect original the 1948 door through which cows must have come generations a little ragged round the edges damp but the fire was hot we threw it on that door was a way in we burnt it now it’s gone adventure in feathers and overcast, no matter well into the morning when this swamp hen takes to the roof one is tempted to think because it is there what use a roof to almost flightless? pond traipser – the white-arsed swampy Jesus of birds one wonders if the tribe will follow but no, a solo show they haven’t much of a tune but you could always hear them issues of territory, love quarrels now a clatter too at least this one is who holds the roof for decoration and from there gets up in the touching tree half flutter could say climbing precarious to perch its moment swaying then nothing like a thunderbolt it glides to pond spectacular at least to me * now, if after all of this you want more of me, you can go to my website it’s kitkelen.com or find me on facebook or on the 366 blog https://project365plus.blogspot.com/ where you can find draft stuff I and others put up every day or howsabout you buy a book of mine like for instance my latest Poor Man’s Coat – Hardanger Poems https://uwap.uwa.edu.au/products/poor-mans-coat-hardanger-poems or if you’re interested in taking the complete course in poetry writing you could grab yourself a copy of my workbook Throwing Words Together – 101 Poetry Making Exercises (rare as hen’s teeth) at a pinch you can message or e-mail me at KitKelen@emeritus.umac.mo don’t’ you hate the way poets promote themselves so shamelessly? but really what’s a bear to do? bump bump bump on the back of the head coming down the stairs there must be another way but now he’s introduced to you think back Pooh says ‘I do remember, and then when I try to remember, I forget’