(image provided by DWB)
Through it all,
and during it all,
the vast collection
of poetry
he’d created
in the last
ten years
had turned into
a monster
like Grendel
that was now devouring
my life. William Carlos
Williams said:
since the imagination is
nothing, nothing
comes
of it. This lesson
was weighing
heavily. But Jack
Spicer
also said: the poet gets
messages
for her or his life right
from the act
of writing poetry. This
makes poetry
worth doing daily
in its own right,
regardless
of any outward
consequences, or
non-consequences,
that can be
immediately seen. I remembered
I was a person born
with a humble sense
of mystic vision
(since day one). Since day
one
I’d felt
the correspondences
in the world
and had
a certain sense that we
are all here
for a reason, or for
many reasons
and meanings, which we
can feel (sometimes), but not
clearly
see
or say (most of the time).
An ambiguous
mystical
seeing, since
the dawning
of consciousness:
the first memory:
opening the eyes
outside of her body
for the first time.
Dr. Dale Williams Barrigar is a poet whose own poetry transformed his own life: suddenly, and then gradually. It’s good enough for him.
Saragun Springs 
Dale
The three poems have formed an ongoing story, which, I think matches the “suddenly” and “gradually” in your bio.
I feel there are certain word groupings, no matter what they say, that are perfect, as though they are a part of the foundation of life in the universe. To be or not to be; the Lord’s Prayer; the last part of Dover Beach, stuff like that, which cannot be improved.
This is a great work you have going, look forward to seeing the rest of it.
Leila
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Hi Leila
Thank you for noticing and drawing attention to the story-like, and even chapter-like, nature of these poems.
They are all stand-alone works but in some ways they also work better as a sequence.
At some point during my long, long study of poetry before I started writing it (I didn’t start writing it until I was 46, except for a few abortive attempts and a handful of “ok” prose poems) I noticed that very many of the best poems, and even or especially the best modern poems, were stories.
They were small stories (because of their size) with big implications (because of their themes, connections, meanings, messages, symbols, resonances, etc.).
It’s also strange (in a good way) when one starts writing a kind of fictional autobiography in verse. The main character has aspects of the self but as many have pointed out before me, the main character IS NOT, and can never be, the “real person” behind the poem. This kind of character is just as fictional as a fictional character who is (supposedly) not autobiographical.
Thank you, LA.
D
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Hello Dale
Indeed verse can be, well, versatile! Shakespeare’s sonnets about the Dark Lady tell a story without losing mystery.
I first noticed poetry (besides at school) in good song lyrics, Lennon’s Come Together for the Beatles at first seemed like gibberish but it built up an image that I always remember, same with Walrus.
But, really, I think meeting Bob D. inspired him to look away from regular lyrics.
Leila
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L
Funny to think how Bob brought The Beatles from “She loves you, yeah yeah yeah” to “Picture yourself in a boat on a river” and other great lines.
Probably also fair to say that they brought him from basic folk tunes to the explosion of “Like A Rolling Stone,” too!
Thank you!
D
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Another very fine poem. Leila’s comment about word groupings gets to the heart of things – but then there’s barely ever a comment of hers that doesn’t. Thanks too for introducing me to the work of Jack Spicer.
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Thanks again, Geraint!
I’m overjoyed that you checked out the work and life or life and work of Jack Spicer.
He was great at two things: making the poem itself; and conceptualizing the reason for the poem and the reason for the poet in the modern world.
Also the line of his as he was dying of alcoholism at 40 in a charity ward (he was a man much older than his years). “My vocabulary did this to me.”
Dale
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