What's the connection between poetry & dance?

Integration.
Word & movement.
Performance.

When word is spoken, the dance begins.



When olive oil is heated, garlic unleashes its choreography.

Do poems scare?

In many ways. The obvious, Halloween. Ghoulish tales & masks. And words in and of themselves like raccoon and durian.

Sometimes what’s left out is terrifying.



About food, black & orange cupcakes don’t have an ounce of the lyric. Scare me. Always have.

Is poetry a sport?

Yup. Is sport an occasion for a poem? Yup. Giants one up.

You thought I was kidding? An historic occasion.

Spring Training
for Paul Watsky & Willie Mays

Learning
to fly
isn’t easy.
I hear
a finch
slam against
the window.
I assist
offering
my body
a warning
track. Finch
pops up.
The season
continues
its sacrifice
catching
all things
on the fly.




Regarding food, sport is an occasion for “junk.” Hot dogs w/mustard, chili on the side. Salsa & chips. Liquids cold & various. Yum.

How is a poet like a magician?

It’s all in front of you on the page, in your ear. Sleight of hand, the edit. Makes the rabbit disappear. Makes the rabbit reappear.





Same at a cook’s hand. A few straightforward ingredients. Add an herb. To not follow a recipe is to edit. Discernible weight to the outcome. Tuber and meringue.

How is a poem connected to fog?

Perspective. Haze and clarity. Both fine things. Watch as the poem embraces the antics of fog. Strong the foreground, as in, what is upon the page and background, hazy. Then a shift, perhaps wind; miraculously the background becomes clearer. Upon a poem’s second reading, what receded, doesn't.



Spice accomplishes the same with food. Chili flakes in the fish stew. Or white peppercorns. Foreground/background. Layers to taste.

What impact, where the poem is written?

Vary the locale, vary the poem?


Try this. Cook on a different stove – gas vs. electric. Or over coals?

Every condition, conditions language. Conditions food.

Are longer poems easier on an audience?

Do short poems scare an audience? Difficult to settle in and listen without expectation of grasping whole cloth, the first time.

Of course, there’s no consensus on what constitutes a longer poem. For me, 28 lines.



Regarding food, I consider soup as long. Ceviche as short-ish.

What constitutes a diminutive book of poems?

format
length of poems
number of pages
subject
tone
reader's prejudice?



Remember, there is nothing tiny about a clove of garlic. Nothing cute about a peppercorn.

Can a poem be created purely from imagination?

First, how does the purely imagined look? Sound? Is inspiration singular?




Poetry is a blood relative of meal-making. Can’t you trace an elder’s hand in the dishes before you?

Is a poem the sum of calculated silence?

Thinking Cage. Feeling spontaneity and spaces between words, translating as “silence.”



Of food? Leftovers are calculated spontaneity. Spaces between celebrate the largess and flavor of small dishes. Over which, a fine conversation is largely memory; what the spoken pays homage to silence.

Is a poem inherently a film?

The visual inseparable from word. Visa versa. Page animated or performance stilled, image & word in self-induced trajectory. Catch & release.




Think fish --wild. Farm-raised, I think of fruit. Ideally, never underweight. Patience & appreciation for visual ripening.

In which ways are poems unfaithful?

As love affairs with the seasonal – ripe and necessary. Go write/be with that poem about pomegranate or persimmon. Pears will understand and hold no malice for your action.



Isn’t it comforting to know that you can get a good lemon year-round.

Which poems are most like persimmons?

Every mark of language welcomes the seasonal and derives its breath from. Graft the line accordingly. Thus, your poems might be picked. Thus, the contour and sweetness or distance from, savored.




Thank the peach; anticipate the fuyu.

Does a manuscript of poetry usually begin as a project?

Are most manuscripts, projects completed? A task. Something seen through to the end. Whatever does the end mean in a poem? With a manuscript.



Food seen as a project is the meal.

Can a poem be written devoid of audience?

No. Always, someone/something listens. People & pebble. Sometimes, an audience of one – the poet.



I’ve heard it said, at minimum a meal requires one eater. Food’s audience, if you will.

Is word count a poetic form?

Yes. The obvious one, I don’t subscribe to in English -- haiku 5-7-5. So, that doesn’t satisfy the question. There are journals with word limits: CLWN WR (Bob Heman), Right Hand Pointing (Dale Wisely), Teeny Tiny (www.teenytiny.org, Amanda Laughtland) leap to mind. Others, of course. Recently, I discovered Benjamin C. Krause, (editor of twenty20journal) who created quincouplets (http://quincouplets.com). Have a look see.

Regarding chapbook publishers with exact word count, check out my posting 9/17/10. Dan Waber 500 Favourite Words chapbookpublisher.com.

I’m working on poems of 36 words. We’ll see if it ends up as an interesting but shelved exercise or a box worth opening 35 times.



Regarding food, I recall several cookbooks which limit ingredients, say no more than 5 or 7. Remember, a modest number of leftovers makes a meal unexpected & delicious. Think, small dishes to accompany small poems. Yup!