Poetry

[Noon]

Any members here like to read or write poetry? Confessional, imagist, micro, surrealist, haiku, alternative, spoken word, anything! I'm currently on a pretty stubborn writer's block and looking to fall for words again.

Among my favorite well-knowns are Cummings, Berrigan, William Carlos Williams, Sexton, Octavio Paz et al, but I really love reading amateur & unpublished too because I feel like the perspectives are fresher and the formats less constricted and self-conscious.

I'd be grateful to anyone willing to share their favorite poems, writers, publications, or block-breaking tips. I also wouldn't mind any collaborative chains. Thanks in advance

 

[Ghost]

Oops, meant to reply to this sooner.

I tend to sample poems randomly, picking favorites along the way. I like this poem by and this one. Glass, Phoebe, inkscrawl and the Nashville Review are some of the journals I browse most often. I don't have any subscriptions, but FIELD and the Cincinnati Review look good based on what's available on their official websites or Verse Daily/Poetry Daily.

I write more poems than I read, which is probably the wrong way to go about it. From last April to now, I tried writing a poem every day. Most of them are crap, but after serious revision, some are decent enough to submit.

Did you manage to beat your block? I don't have any tips except to try writing every day even if you're not inspired. Some of my better poems happened when I wasn't in the mood to write. I'd also recommend looking outside of poetry. Watching documentaries about space, taking a walk at night, or looking at diagrams helps me get into a different mindset, and that makes writing easier. Whatever activities pull you outside of your normal thoughts might be good.

Happy National Poetry Month!

 

[Vasilisa]

Favourite Poems & Poems that moved you

Poetry Thread

I love poetry, we have poetry readings on vent sometimes... its quite nice.

 

[Mole]

Dancing in Dialysis

Dancing in Dialysis
​

Connected to the dialysis machine, I go hunting on the Savannah.

I love to hunt, I love to run down antelope.

It takes time as the antelope is faster, but can only pant and not perspire to loose the heat of the chase, while I cool myself through sweating.

And when the antelope gallops, they can't pant and soon overheat, and collapse of the ground. And here am I, the hunter, cool and perspiring, with the kill.

It takes four hours on the dialysis machine to run down an antelope. My brain becomes flooded with endorphins, I experience pleasure through my whole body, and my mind is fluid delight.

Fuck the antelope.

- Mole.

 

[Mole]

After Rain​

Two blows, smoking and pornography, following the warfare of dialysis, made me sick, vomiting into the sink.

I am fighting back, surprisingly, and seeing one assault, I see others. The red meat on the bar-b-que, the poker machines, the alcohol, the hatred of giftedness, all matched by my strength.

Where to go next?

Should I follow the way of trance? Should I enter the unknown with my eyes closed? Can I become a dealer in the unknown, without freaking out?

I don't know, so I keep my eyes open. I cross at the lights, I drink my spinach and celery juice, I don't know what is coming next, I give up the temptation to know what next.

Deliver me from temptation I pray, deliver me breaths of delight, the cool air after rain. Come to know myself, come to know my unknown self, feels good getting to know you.