26 Comments

" the first spells were names

& the first to be named

were the namers—"

The magic of naming is quite the Pandora's box. I wonder if nature expected it.

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Hehe - yeah, I wonder 🖤 Although from another perspective, we are simply a part of nature, and so language is too. Everything is foreseen. Nothing unexpected.

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I hope we can share a cup of tea sometime Dick and really unpack this... My guess was that everything is probabilistic and potentially surprising. I am sure we are on the same page actually. Just having fun with point of view.

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Haha - yeah definitely - I think we're saying the same thing. If everything is potential, then everything is known, because everything happens, in all known timelines hahaha. And so everything is also unexpected, in any one moment. :-) Yeah, a cup of tea one day would be lovely!

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I do this, too - pack in too much, and I need to back up and let it breathe a bit. The good thing is that once you cut, you have those extra bits to use elsewhere (as you note), even just as inspiration. As always, I am in awe of your work and appreciate that you share it with us here.

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Yeah definitely :-) Cutting down a poem is just a way to make new poems haha. Awww thankyou Kerry - I really appreciate your kind words, so much! 🖤 It's comments like this that keep me committed to sharing my work here, for free and in the moment, rather than submitting to magazines and such, and having to wait 6 months or longer before being able to show anyone.

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It’s great Dick…well done. The repetition of the “D” sound is whimsically beautiful. And then there is the master stroke of “bound to the spine of the wind”.

Seems to me your writing comes from a deep place of authenticity.

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Thanks so much Stefano - your lovely comments really mean a lot to me. Haha - I was really proud of that line, so means a lot you mentioned it :-) I try to access that place, for sure, and I am so glad it comes off that way. It can be a fine line to walk sometimes!

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I feel a raw emotional connection to life, in her poetry.

And regarding your "little epic," I can definitely see how this may be a seed for something bigger. There is a lot to dig into there!

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Yeah I know what you mean - her work is so vibrant! Almost shimmering with emotion. Aww thanks Hasse - yeah, a lot of bits and pieces of recent work are kind of part of the same cycle of poems. Will have to gather them altogether some time and see how they work as a whole.

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"Opiate" blew me away. All the wonder, all the ruin, in two brief stanzas.

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Agree completely - such an amazing poem!! I find her work really vibrant and fresh, even after 100 years.

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I enjoyed “October in Illinois”. I grew up in rural Illinois and can visualize the poem. Thanks for sharing forgotten poets.

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I remember posting this one, I think on Twitter, a while back, and someone from Illinois made exactly the same comment - amazing that her words can so clearly conjure the reality of the place!

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The poem reminded me of a haiku I had written and was published in Dragonfly in 1977.

Illinois farmland—

pheasant scoots across the snow

the pickup heads home

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Beautiful work Harley - thank you so much for sharing this! Wow - I had no idea you were such a seasoned haiku poet! I have read some of those old issues of Dragonfly. Wonderful magazine!

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Dick, you can find some of my early haiku on Medium. https://medium.com/the-torchbearer/winter-silence-c671212e8e32

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Dick, I spent 7 years studying, reading and writing haiku. In the 70s & 80s I had haiku published in various haiku journals.

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Harley, I grew up in Northern Illinois (Oregon, IL). Where were you raised?

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Ann, I grew up in Roanoke, a town of 1800. 25 miles east of Peoria and 30 miles north of Bloomington on Route 116.

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I love your long poem--it's wild and wants to take itself on a journey. Will you go along?!? GO!

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Awww cheers Ann - really appreciate it!! Yeah, I will definitely keep working on it. A lot of my poems in the last little while are sort of part of the same cycle. At some point I will have to pull all the poems together, and see what I have, cause there are maybe 2 or 3 cycles of work going on, which belong together. :-)

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Dick, your VI poem reminds of Ursula LeGuin's "Earthsea" – the power of names, the spells that words can cast.

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Yeah, Earthsea really resonated with me for those reasons (and lots more of course). When I read it I was like - yes! That is exactly how I feel about magic haha.

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I really like that first one, "October in Illinois"

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Yeah - it's a banger! One of my favs too. :-)

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