Poet's Dilemma & Imperative

Poet's Dilemma & Imperative 11/08/2012
["A poem is the unpaid labor of the intellect,
the fonds perdu, practice with a sandbag:
one-sided, inconsequential, and without partners."

• • - Gottfried Benn]
    

["anyway all artists feel 'other'.
There's not an artist on God's green earth
who feels 'emotionally speaking,'
that he or she has been invited to the prom."

• • - Hilton Als]

The writing That we put Upon the paper Silently screams Its sibilants and plosives; Yet meaninglessly meanders Across the surface Of many a mind. ~ Too long, too short, Too nerdish, Too simple, Too out there. No rhythm, no rhyme, Out of fashion, Too trendy, "Who ya think you are?" ~ A man like any other More or less. Like Shylock and not. A Jeffersonian bundle Of contradictions, Both plain spoken and A dealer in allusions. ~ Day in, day out, A streambed dry Till a flash flood Of words burn In my brain, "Write us or lose us, We need to be said. No one else can The same way."

          - Gerald Alan Ney

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Task & Purpose