I Googled “linear thinking” in hopes of breaking free from the typical view point that I tend to have on poetry. I found this http://www.laetusinpraesens.org/docs/conftran/conftrt.php and it was quiet interesting. The other day I was in the library looking some stuff up. One of which was the simple encyclopedia entry for poetry. It was fascinating and rather long. It talked about standard traditional form, meter, rhythm, rhyme, and so on. I liked it. But I thought to myself (recently), this just might be linear thinking. I know that there has been tremendous efforts in free verse, most of which I know nothing about. And I am quiet sure that there have been made great strides towards avant-guard artistic poetry, but none that I’ve seen. I came up with several conclusions, all of which may be premature or unnecessary. One, I should do more searching for other than the norm poetry. Two, take into context and figure out how to apply cyclical and circular thinking into poetry, in order to break the standard “linear thinking” of traditional form and verse. I think that “Slam” poetry is a great start in that line of thinking. However, the one disadvantage with Slam poetry is that it leaves the page and is more of a performance. For those of us who are stage shy, that just won’t do. BUT, perhaps, leaving the page is cyclical thinking. True enough, standard forms must be rehearsed and practiced in order to master technique. Also true that without first learning the technique, freedom in verse or free verse cannot fully be appreciated. But traditional form doesn’t necessarily bind as much, perhaps, control the words and thoughts which create that frozen in time emotion that the poet is conveying.

To break linear thinking one must apply cyclical or circular thinking. How is this done? Well, many a moon ago, poetry’s foundations started in a spoken tradition, many times to rhythms and beats. Sometimes even by accompanied music. Then the written tradition started, through various means. The Hebrews had a great poetic history, starting with the book of Job. Aristotle also contributed a great deal while advocating tragedy and Greek tradition. The renaissance period hit, with many more “forms” of poetry developing. Much of our current bound verse is a result of French and British poets and poetry traditions, including the Rondeau and the Sonnet. There have also been Asian influences on modern American poetry as well, specifically the Haiku.

Then fellows like Walt Whitman came along and reinforced and even defined Free Verse. Here is a Whitman poem –

The little one sleeps in its cradle,
I lift the gauze and look a long time, and silently brush
away flies with my hand.
-Walt Whitman-

Although this seems rather simple, it is in fact pure genius and at the time, cutting edge. He is most famous for his Leaves of Grass (which can be found in almost any bookstore). Well, he opened up a flood gate and a poetry tradition that has lasted decades, and probably will last a few more if not more. The fact that some people still write Rondeaus and Sonnets tells me that Free Verse will never truly die.

However, that being said, I want to apply cyclical thinking to the patterns of poetry. In this line of thinking, I would say that there is going to be either a return to bound form, or spoken verse, much like Slam. I could also be lacking an enormous amount of insight. I am sure there are individuals seeking, or have sought their doctorate in creative writing, pursuing and musing about such things, and I’m sure they would have a greater insight. This is just me, barely educated, and self-taught in many areas, forming a guess.

My love of speculation is boundless! But I want to get deeper. I want to apply cyclical or circular thinking onto the page itself. Not in speculation of trends and traditions, but on the page itself. How do I, P. Allan, get round? I guess I have more speculation to contend. How do I break the page? How do I leap out, get three dimensional with written words? I feel as though I could really use a writing class or seminar? Perhaps next year!

New Poem Time!

Courage in Poetry

Courage she says? Courage to
Speak plainly concerning
Women’s sexual exploits and
Her personal power gained by
Owning her victories over
Male chauvinism? Has she
Done this in her poetry?
Have you DD?

What about having enough courage
To employ integrity in your
Everyday life and relationships?
True integrity that makes people
Take notice. Have so much integrity
That it makes people uncomfortable
Because of their own guilted
Conscious. Put that in your poetry
Submissions and see if you can
Get in print! Or will using the
“F” word be so avant-garde that
The young grad who just took
Over editorial can only
Relate to obscenity?

I am grateful for the contributor of the last blog. His research seems to be write on! (get it? Write on? Anyways it seems as though the going understanding with internet law, is that anything written on a forum or blog is considered published.

In the August 2005 edition of Writers Digest, there is a small section called Questions & Quandaries. The first question has directly to do with what we’ve been talking.

The question is something like: Does having a story posted on a blog or an online writers’ forum mean that first-time electronic media rights can’t be sold to a publication? Does it mean that you’ve already used your first serial rights, too? What should I tell an editor when I am submitting a story or poem I’ve posted on my blog, even if only 50 people have read it?

Great question I think. That pretty much sums up, but a little more thoroughly what I was asking.

The answer given, basically, if you’ve put it on a blog or forum, you can’t sell your first electronic media rights elsewhere, says their legal expert. Whether 50 or 50 million people see it, it is published. Other publishers don’t have the chance to be the first to publish it, online or otherwise. Most contracts require you to warrant that piece hasn’t been printed or published in any form.

The going thought process is that it would be best to notify the publisher or editor that it is on your blog, and they might be willing to arrange something.

So, I kind of feel like a poem blogged would almost be a waste, but I still like to share my poetry, and I can always save them for my next chapbook. So I think that I will be wise in what I put on my blog, and what I submit for compititions and publications.

New Poem

The New Cage

Rats in a cage
Smart are they that
Know the cage.

Each inch
No exit
Water bottle
Pellets

But wait
Who’s that?
Life outside
This cage?
People walking
Staring in
What cage is theirs?

Life beyond cage?
Life bigger than this?

Lifted from cage
Freedom so close

New cage,
Larger
What new life could
This be?

Snake!

To publish, or not to publish?

To post or not to post? That is the question. I am in a quandary. There are poems that I would like to post and share with you all. All of which will someday show up in my second collection. But what I am uncertain of is publishing rights, and qualifications of poems on a blog are considered published or not. Are they considered published? Or not? I really don’t know. In many poetry publications, literary magazines, and announced contests they require previously unpublished poetry. That is where the dilemma is at.

To me, a blog is basically a journal online, but technically I believe that it is published. The reason that I think that is because years ago, there was a company that promoted their blog’s as being self-published. That is really the only thing that I have in my head that relates to the subject.

I think my ideal situation is to find some message boards where I could find an answer. I'm sure I am not the only person to struggle with the same issue.

I only can produce, on average, two to three poems a week. There are many factors included to determine this rate. The first being inspiration. It is hard for my to write a poem that has to come out of the thin air. I can do it, it’s just that it isn’t that easy. Second, I need to pick out what form I am using. Free verse? Traditional? An if traditional, what type? Dramatic Monologue, Cinquain, Haiku, limerick, or a Rondeau are all possibilities, and there are even more. I like to use rhyme and meter and so forth, but it takes a great deal of work.

I may be alone in my thinking, but I doubt it, mainly because nobody is alone in the way that they think. But to me it seems that I can achieve a greater level of expression and passion in free verse. It is unrestricted, and you can use form to a greater advantage. However, there is also some creative security in using more common traditional style as well.

I really want to work on my meter and rhyming, because it is like training for the martial arts, but for poetry. I am assuming that the more I become proficient at using traditional form, the better I will become at free verse. The more discipline I achieve, the greater my freedom will be. It’s the same principle used in my experiences as a Christian. The more I resist transgression, the freer I become as a person.

So, in conclusion, I think investigation is required before I post anymore of my poetry, and I need to practice my form, so I can become a poet Kung-Fu master.

Father poet and mother page yearn to give birth to every possible childlike words that somehow encase our infantile spasms to express. In this powerful and mighty universe, we are but irreverent children, fumbling our way around. Poetry has only been around since the great storytellers of the ancients. And yet, we still haven’t found our way. Centuries of developing meter, diction, and rhyme have gone to the wayside thanks to other poets such as Whitman and Frost. Redemption has shown its frightful head through the works of Maya Angelou and others. But why were these gifts from our poetic forefathers disregarded for the sake of greater expression? Is it the pride of arrogance and rebellion that teenagers express when they refuse to need their parents? I’ve been reading the trade magazines and I am reading today’s poets. Here is the poem that I just wrote…

Lettin’ off a Little Steam

Readin’ poet trade magazines
Looking for craft and skill
When none is found
Then what should I think?
They are getting published and
Their names are on the cover, but
I read their poetry and I find a lack
Of elegance and poise.

Brutal are these pen masters to
Their topics and their paper.
Forcing words to conglomerate
And coagulate in needless
Procession. If them then
Why not me?

Simple, theirs is the courage that
I have yet to find. Theirs is the courage
That I seek and yearn for.
Or arrogance perhaps? My pen
Is encouraged and well pleased
With OUR relationship. It is happy to
Be put to the pad and scribe for
Its master. Some day’s are happily
Filled with rhyme and meter. Other
Days are filled in free verse but with
Sense making words plugged in to
General thought processes.

Hide pen, hide in fear that the professing
Poet may grab you like Neanderthals scraping
Their knuckles across the paper with ink
Coming out of the tips. Hide that these
Kamikaze literates will target you with
Its degree baring strokes, like a dog scraping
Its butt on the carpet to scratch that little itch.

“Regardless of the vomit I spew on the page
I will presume to acknowledge my talent
That I ASS U ME that you think I have.”
Says the lady with her picture between the covers
Of this magazine. “Are there not certain
Privileges and rights to me because of my
Education and your lack of one?” asked the
Elderly man who has lived the extremely
Odd and eccentric unproductive life.
Flee you reader, and search not within
These pages of poems to find the old
Fashion but long forgotten rhyme and meter.
Look not here, for those who have been
Trained who now rebuke the knowledge of
The craft in which we profess. “Boundaries be
Cursed!” they will say. “No obligation do
I have to my literary forefathers!” and then
They run rabid like old yeller at the end
Of the movie who ‘needed’ to be put to
Sleep.

I wait for the light saber bearing teenager
Who will bring that new hope to the
Community that I profess. Or perhaps
I should get off my ever widening backside
And do something about it.
Copyright c.2005 P. Allan Frederick


Almost the entire poem is an exaggeration for drama’s sake. Ugly images and startling words were brought to the fore front for a purpose. Last year, I read a great deal of the great poets of the 19th and 20th centuries. I am amazed at the grace of these words while making no compromise in content and intent. These words are crafted like skilled woodworker, sculpting and chipping each and every stanza. But when I read today’s poet’s, I am squeamish at the chopping and hacking at dead trees, in search of the new innovation. Vulgarity and shock value loom and weave these butcher block floors.

So I make a decision, the decision to lead by repentance. I wish not to throw out progress made in free verse, only “progress” made by impenitent mouth washers whose only goal is to make their opinion find great worth. Oh, the poet has his pain, as stated in my first chapbook, Back from Dreamland, page 52…
The Poet’s Pain

Aahrrg, the burden of the poet,
To lay waste of words in wait.
Anxiety alone in line to the ten o’clock
Panels of expression in vocabulary angst.

The torture and ache of a poets pain
Dragging on paper lit with joy of sorrow
Eager to shine thoughts, defeats, and
Examination of literatures soul.

Unleash your barge docked in tow!
Get it out and run the pan of rapids
Rudder honed only by desire to be heard
Poets pain freight carried ashore.
Copyright ©2005 P. Allan Frederick, Carla Frederick

And I understand that pain. I understand the need to express and call the universes attention to me through each word captured on paper, made to submit to our literary egos.
We’re trapped in a way, us poets. The need to innovate is fierce, and mandatory to meet the requirements of pretentious magazine and publisher editors. If you want to read some good poetry, buy a copy of a poetry anthology magazine, or a magazine about poets, and you will see advertisements from small house printers and publishers pushing their new poets chapbooks. Write down the address and order it. Find one for whatever reason that appeals to you, and buy one. Or better yet, go to a poetry reading with enough money to buy a cup of coffee, and a chapbook. Support that poet, and support the literary arts, specifically, the continual growth of poetry.

The singular chapbook will have more to say than a novel of monotone gibber gab, hailing to narcissistic demigods of the poetry world.