Raw Poetry @ Corked
Sunday, 15 January, 2017
Poetry readings: some poets are meant to be listened to, while others are meant to be written to. Listening to Nicole Godwin and R. W. Gray, I came up with these two very raw poems; by very raw poems, I mean written and read this afternoon at the poetry readings.
For Nicole
Water, H2O,
brings life,
brings words
tumbling
from unplugged
mouths.
Meurtriers et victimes.
Too much,
too often,
brings to both
a long, dark path
leading to goblins
and hobgoblins
rejoicing
at the garden’s foot:
madness and death.
Comment: Nicole was in Iraq and saw things that have stayed with her ever since. I highly recommend her poetry book, Warcries, from which she read today.
For Rob
My poems are drawn from my life,
not from the lives of others.
I live my words,
drawing them wriggling
through the holes
punched by others in my flesh.
Pot-holes:
so many cars
slithering in the freshet
melt of tarmac
and stilted flesh.
Portholes:
so many ships,
leaving port,
sailing away.
Comment: Rob’s opening words clicked with my own experiences and I joined right in. I highly recommend his book of short stories, Crisp, from which he read today.
Raw Poems: I wrote them down as they came to me. No revision. No second thoughts. As yet, no ‘oh dears’!
rogermoorepoet 
I love the raw poems. Don’t fiddle with them too much, Roger. The emotion is as important as the words!
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Thanks, Meg. The problem is, as always, to keep the emotion while revising where necessary. I think these can stand as is.
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I think they can too!
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I like the immediacy of your raw poems
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Thank you, Mr. Cake. I usually work and re-work. Some of the poems take a decade to appear in public. These are “raw” — and I’ll probably rework them. Reworking takes away the immediacy. Then we have to re-re-work to put the immediacy back in again.
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Like Oscar Wilde said… he spent the morning taking a comma out and the afternoon putting it back in… you may have toiled me that
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Beautiful: the artist’s life: when you are on absinthe. Now, drinking green tea …
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Well green tea is nice enough
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Honeyed, and a shot of rum.
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You are honey tongued enough Roger.
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