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?