Recent content by murff

In the world of poetry, content and form are considered inseperable. I once attended a lecture by the former Poet Laureat of Canada, George Bowering, who published something like 120 books in his life. He talked about "serving the form" and how it can liberate the imagiation. This might be...

It's all about the sweet spot. I live in the mountains. Around here it's about going up slowly and going down fast. Winter anx spring I ski dummer and dall I mountsin bike. Gravity is the engine and the nemesis. Balance is the Zen state of flow. Typically, ascent is long and meditative...

Poe may be America's favoutite poet but I suspect that's because he's the only poet most Americans can think of when asked who their favorite poet is. I like Nick Flynn. He has a sense of humour and a taste for tragedy. I don't know if that is beauty or not but he writes great poetry. I also...

You should write more poetry. Personification is a great avenue.

I suggest that people write some of the worst poems while trying to write good ones, and inadvertently write good poems while trying to write bad ones. What is good or bad is entirely subjective.

I don't know but studies show that among heavy drinkers, those who drink the most coffee have the least liver damage. So drink both.

I feel like that when I read the daily news.

"Actually, I'm a drinker with a writing problem." - Brendan Behan I know I ski better when I'm stoned.

Some algorithm, I guess. I googled it. So who knows? The two poems you mention were # 2 & #3. I consider the "Star Spangled Banner" a song.

That is the way to see it as opposed to saying it doesn't mean anything, or you can’t understand it. Leaving the meanimg open but also universal.

Everything in moderation, including moderation. Entropy is a curious funtion of the universe. It is true that nature abhors a vacuum. High pressure flies to low pressure. This is what creates oweather. Heat flows to cold (absense of heat). This is why we have to heat our homes i winter...

This poem was an experiment, using words out of context. It gives the poem surrealistic images by juxtaposing reality with fantasy. I wasn't thinking about chaos or God but I can see how the impression arises because of the distortions in context. This poem was published twice in the same year...

I like to record my poems and then listen to them. I usually hear something that I want to change that isn't so obvious just reading it on the page. I have set some poems to music but I don't think of them as songs. The music is more of a soundscape. For some reason, I can't sing the poems...

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That's a good question. It seems that every culture has a myth about the Great Flood. Diaz writes many poems about her brothers and this brother in particular who struggled with addiction and died of an overdose. I take the poem to be a kind of premonition on her part about trying to save him...