Lullaby for a tumor

Lullaby For a Tumour
"http://www.ted.com/talks/evan_grant_cymatics.html"


The first thing we discovered
was the shape of dolphin speak.
From that first visual recognition (hearing)
to the first cymatic device with enough
detail to model the language was a working lifetime.

My daughter attended the opening night performance.



© 2009 David L. Potter

first fire

Traces of the Molten State from Etsuko Ichikawa on Vimeo.

first fire

no life before fire
no memory before stone lay
cooling
slowly cooling.

life exploding
in the mouth of nothing
to became the ultimate surprise.
flying until these stone

cold memories
join others in some new fire
welling up, over
another edge to run
down mountains again
new memories - joining memory

a thousand words for heat
a thousand for the nuance of cold
and between, another thousand
for each discrete
degree of pressure

one for the tug
of an orbiting moon, one
for this shoulder, ploughed hard
in the bed of a glacial stream -
one for your breast and this blanket
between us

and this last word
for heat - swollen,
hard in a new fire I melt,
welling up
over another edge -running
down mountains again.


© David L. Potter

---

I wrote this poem in 2002 during a mentorship that disappointed several people, myself especially. The mentor is/was an internationally recognized, award winning poet well respected in the literary and academic communities, but not the mentor I would have chosen.

After being informed that I had been accepted in the program I rushed to the library and borrowed a copy of everything they had by my new mentor. I literally had nightmares - something that is so rare I can remember only one other in the years since 2002. I really didn't want to write the kind of poetry my mentor did, and I was afraid....

My mentor was fascinated by new metaphors and expanding the language... I was/am more interested in crystalizing the emotion I find and experience in the world around me.

After a while it was clear that my hope (expressed clearly in my program application) that we might work with a body of my work that was not ready for submission was not possible. "I'm not a poem mechanic."

"Write a poem about stone."

After I presented this poem, the mentorship was declared a "breast-free zone" ;-) ...and shortly after we mutually and quietly allowed it to dissolve.

I was discussing my mentor's work with good friends the other day. The delight is that this world is large enough for all of us...

---

I borrowed this video from another friend's blog, not only do I have a fascination about glass and the art of the glass blower, it seems to match this poem much better than a volcano lava flow could. (Thanks to Wenda for finding it...!)

d.

Pattern Recognition... (pr)

Adobe Shockwave's Free Daily Jigsaw Puzzle

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It's not often that my morning jigsaw puzzle ritual generates much in the way of thoughts that are linked together... usually I use the puzzle to _start_ the wheel of the grist mill. This morning however, the P&G ad for 'Venus' Razors (which I've already seen several times) got me 'started', and the puzzle became the counterpoint...

---

As a boy - years before the age my parents would slip away on Christmas eve for a visit with neighbours, leaving me to wrap incidental gifts for my younger siblings - my sister and I would help my mother do jigsaw puzzles.

From emptying the box on the table top, to deciding who will position the last piece, the conversation moved back and forth - warm, comfortable, punctuated with with smiles and laughter.

I still, enjoy the sound of that type of conversation, and the memories are somewhat stronger this morning as I prepare to drive to Bear River to visit my mother who is just a few days away from her 79th birthday - like her, I was born in a year ending in '0'.

---

Although success in many human endeavours (probably any life form) is linked to pattern recognition, I don't think we devote enough effort to developing pattern recognition skills in children (or ourselves).

As a teenager wandering the halls of high school, simply asking myself the question "what is the pattern here" would probably have saved me a lot of angst ... ;-)

Teaching MJ how to drive, it's not a question of what the other driver will do (mind reading) it's a question of what might they do that would affect her driving decisions (pr, more confidence).

---

In art, pattern recognition becomes inspiration, association, interpretation, exploration, and intimacy - the piece alters - the pattern, evolves, repeats.....

---

Returning to the Procter and Gamble Internet ad, my impression is they're prepared to take the risk.

---

Two Poems with a camera...

Depth of Field

The boy leans his right elbow on the handlebars
and looks at the viewer
of the digital camera in her hand.
He looks at her face and says something
that is lost in the distance.
She raises her eyes and looks at him
with what appears to be a question.

They are lying under light covers
in the morning, spoons.
His right palm lightly supports her breast,
the fingers of his left hand trace her belly,
tug at her innie.
Her breathing deepens slightly.
“She has great trust in me in this he thinks.”

The boy pushes off with his left foot
and pedals away
she watches his shoulders, dipping
with that familiar, steady tempo
- the way they move in the kayak
reach, pull, reach, pull.


He carves a strong measured turn,
the look of an skier
confident, he's in no hurry
feeling the point on the edge that takes
the first bite.


He slides up just a little
and lightly kisses her shoulder,
and then her neck
slightly below the hairline.
Her head turns - toward him
exposing her ear.
His tongue traces a line
from the last kiss to the well
under her earlobe,
his lips tug,
his breath a soft memory
as he releases her.

He stops to make sure she’s ready.
Waiting for a signal.
This time the camera is on a tripod,
she is kneeling behind it,
looking for the right angle.

She looks around the camera and nods.
He pushes off again.

This time the rhythm of his legs
is not steady,
his shoulders dip, pulling his chest
his abdomen.
The next stroke comes a little quicker,
not quite as dependent on his weight,
a little more drive from his thighs.

His palms slide down her torso,
patient, confident
- that firm pressure she recognizes as
his favourite hug.

If she were wearing jeans,
his hands would be in her deep front pockets.
He half pulls, half lifts her - up
back, half on top,
his tongue tracing the underside of her jaw.

The front wheel
rolls off the pavement,
into the gravel.
He picks a spot mid way
between himself and her.
The camera is incidental.


© David L. Potter

Muriel (at ninety-six years)

Together, with a thousand other women
nominated for the Nobel prize.

How many times have you
hand lettered signs, and when it rained...
you marched anyway. Holding
your message up for the camera.

This is important...

I am looking through this lens into your heart.
Look back at me,
into my heart
...it’s important.

Welcome the rain, let it remind us ALL
of the cold hard facts...
That it is the abuse of power - financial, physical
psychological, sexual - which disturbs our peace.

That World peace starts with each of us
saying no to the abusement of each and every person,
the environment,
the systems that should support, comfort
and protect us all.


© David L. Potter

Please Comment

"I'm looking for ways of improving a poem... not simply for other ways of saying something...."

1) I'm looking for places (words, phrases, line breaks) which a reader finds distracting - that provide a significant distraction.

Some of these may be intentional - to drive the reader back ("Was that what he really said?") or to accomplish some other half-devious purpose.

2) I'm interested in knowing if/when/where you, as a reader, lose interest... where your attention drifts away - and , whether it happens in the same place the second or third time you read it.

If the poem is sending you off into some mini reverie that's good! If it's driving you away that _might_ be bad.

3) I'm interested in knowing where (what words, phrases) mark a 'turning', send you heading off in another, noticeably different direction. "In this section... the poem has this feel/does this... and _HERE_ it turns and goes here/does that...."

--------

I'm looking for confirmation that the poem actually turns for the reader where I thought/hoped it did - wanted it to.

--------

I'm also looking for an indication of how sharp a turn this appears to be to the reader:

- gentle curve
- meandering valley road
- mountain switchback, or
- dangerous, blind hairpin

I'm looking for an indication of whether the curve was telegraphed (indicated well in advance), sensed (mild anticipation) or unexpected (shocking).

Clearly a poem that has a major hook should fall into the later group.

4) Finally I'm looking for words that distract the reader because those words carry a meaning for the reader that appears incongruous with the work at hand. Punctuation would probably fall into this category.

A list of 'comfort foods' which included haggis or some other Klingon dish might be an example of this for some people - for others haggis would probably fit right in... ;-)

-----

I developed this 'framework for discussion' during a week-long poetry workshop presented by the Tatamagouche Center and George Elliot Clarke several years ago. Since then, I've wrestled with a number of other questions including the use of obvious cliches (the poem "Separation" ends with a monster... ;-)

I thought you might be curious...

1. About why the post dates are weeks/years in the future...? Actually that allows me to sort the order of posts (most recent first) and the future is definitely recent.


2. This 'Frequently asked questions" post will be linked from my second 'post' and should stay at the bottom of the other posts by me and visitors such as yourself.