cleave

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‘I once heard a song’

14 August, 2009 in Poetry, Religion/Spirituality/Faith | 3 comments

This poem was written while I was flying over the western United States to my brother’s wedding, and is dedicated to Melissa and Olivia who were in my thoughts.  I tend to find that my creativity is better when I’m sleep-deprived, or in this case jet-lagged.  I think it is one of my better ones.  What do you think?

I once heard a song so beautiful and so sad— it was
sung by those who lived a long time ago
when heaven was so close that the angels stopped to listen
and by all those yet to come to the earth
bearing echoes of the eternal way with its endless tapestry of melody and rhythm
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‘there are many things’

19 July, 2009 in Poetry | No comments

In my last post I presented a short poem.  I wasn’t really happy with it, so as an experiment I took the beginning and converted it to a cleave style.  I like this version better.

I’ve written enough cleaves now that I think I have a sense of what I’m trying to ‘get’ from the style.  I like when it really feels as though each side stands completely on its own— like I could have written it by itself and been happy with it.  And it also needs to be integrated in both dimensions (vertically and horizontally) so that it doesn’t feel just jammed together.  That means making sure the phrases overlap as much as possible.  Finally, it’s nice when it’s short enough to read several times in different ways, rotating it like a crystal.

What do you think?

there are many things i wish i could tell you
so many things i wish i could say
and what i mean with a single word
is so much more and even less
to you— just exactly what i see
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Another poem: ‘there are voices’

17 April, 2009 in Poetry | 3 comments

A few people did seem to like my first poetic effort, so as promised I’ve had another go. If you don’t know what cleave poetry is, read my last post.

Writing in this form is really fun for me.  I think partly that’s because it is a technical challenge which is somewhat objective — do the halves fit together and complement each other?  Of course there is much more to art than technical form, but I do tend to get bored with poetry or music or visual art that seems to be pure expression.  Something old-fashioned in me appreciates when creativity is focused and channeled, or maybe disciplined is the right word.

In this case, contemplating the cleave form led me to the subject(s), which was a nice way of getting there.  Form begets content, and vice versa.  Not that I’m saying the poem is very good, of course!  But I think I like it.  Any comments are always appreciated.

In the future, perhaps I should set a rule that my commentary should be shorter than the poem itself!

there are voices in hidden places
that are whispering
 across the world
of all these things i have seen
so i listen and wait for the beginning
the revolution of love

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