any other poets out there

[JohnKleeb]

Hi:
Just started writing last year. If I am lucky I can get it down in like 5 minuites. I write about a variety of stuff.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

1. Once in a while...

But I haven't been inspired to write much lately. It seems that I can only write poetry:
A: For a class.
B: To get a woman's attention. (That one didn't work very well)
C: Um...there is no "C"

[petersjo]

2. Yes

I, too, have only recently started writing poetry--am taking a creative writing course this summer and doing well. I'm loving it and have enjoyed being introduced to some modern poets whose writing is very accessible.

[expatriot]

3. Every person is a poset, but hardly anyone knows it.

That is my take on it...



...darn it.

[Fovea]

4. I have been doing it for 30 years

And only occaisionally can I get it right in one shot.
One of my poems took 25 revisions to get right... Here it is.
What I am most proud of about this poem is that is is a scientifically accurate description of storm formation in Kansas.
It also offended a competeing alternative newspaper publisher so much that he published his own parody of it in his paper.
To me, that is the highest complement an American poet could possibly get.

Rain in Kansas

I.
Out over these moist,
shimmering wheatfields
the air swells with heat.
Drenched,
it pushes up
off the lush, blonde land,
and soars,
aching to enter
the chilled air aloft.

II.
A paradox in mid-air:
the hotter it is,
the faster it rises,
the more it cools,
the slower it dances,
the more it sweats,
the hotter it is,
the faster it rises,
the more it cools.

III.
Above the dew point,
vapor mates with dust.
They birth droplets
that churn on the air,
merging, swelling
to clear pearls
that purple the cloud.

IV.
The air strains
against their growing weight.
Soon,
even the ripping updrafts
can't hold them
and they fall,
like lover's sweat
on a woman's breast.


copyright 1992 w.r.n.

[lkinsale]

9. Lovely!

That offended an alternative newspaper?? Weird. Do you mean a competing newspaper?

[Fovea]

13. Yes

it was published in the New Times and was parodied by Chuck Saults in the KC Pitch.
His parody was titled "Toad Chokers in Utah."

[petersjo]

14. This is great

A really nice poem. I don't understand the need to make fun of it. Obviously not a very enlightened person.

[tpub]

16. nice!

realpolitik, I really like this poem (I'm no poetry expert, but I do read a lot of it)

[lkinsale]

5. Check out the Forward Motion Community

Forward Motion Writers Community

We're a group of often insanely dedicated writers, and a smaller group of obsessive readers. We challenge each other to write better, to reach higher, to never give up on our dreams. The community's motto is Write here -- write now, which defines us well; the writers in the community talk about writing, but more importantly, we write.

A good group, with a great supportive chat and forums in a variety of genres, including poetry. Drop by the chat (requires separate registration) and you'll find people who understand writing in all its pain and glory. ;)

Laura Kinsale

[Rainbowreflect]

6. I guess I am.

I cannot make myself write, but when an idea hits me I cannot get it out of my mind until it is down on paper.

[slackmaster]

7. I once met a man from Nantuckett

...

[expatriot]

8. I wrote in my youth, if you wanna know the truth.

No, seriously, I did... and since I am only 26... I am still in my youth but don't write much anymore... the last poem I wrote was a little over a year ago that I read at my wedding ceremony.

It was a litte like this:

I gues this is what we do now
all that about free milk and cows
our guests are here for the chow chow chow
and i am lookin' forward to the wow wow wow



____
i actually did write a poem for my wedding, not that one of course.

[iluvchicago86]

10. I can only ...

wish that someday my creativity spurs something of a poetic variety. I only write essays and they prove to be very cathartic for my soul. However i do aspire to some day be able to grasp the art of poetry. I truly admire those who can, like you john. Poetry is something that i view as a gift and am unable to produce at all. Good luck to you john in your endeavours. Who is your favorite poet? I find that emily dickinson and Alan Ginsburg produced some really great stuff. And you?

[JohnKleeb]

12. dont really have a favorite poet

I write about what ever comes to mind
I am mostly serious in my poems. I'll show you all a sample.
Remember
by John Kleeb
originally wrote 5/15/03

When our grandparents were children or young adults
These killing fields and death camps

Filled with good people whose only crime was their
Relgion, political beliefs, sexual orientation, or ethnic group

That man tricked a civilized people to believe that these
People were why they lost a war

For some Jews actually served the Kaiser in the last war
Some honorably and some were officers

But he desired power but he needed
A scapegoat he found

So he tricked these people
That the Jews and Communists were why they lost

The grotesqueness of a swastika became common in Germany
He tried an uprising

It didnt work
He was in jail but wrote a horror in Mein Kempf

He had no struggle
He was just an angry, bitter man

He blamed for the defeat what he
Could have been himself a quarter

He came to powr
Many fled many stayed

Took away their rights
Which no one has to have anything about them to have

Kristallnacht many innocent lives destroyed
For we should have noticed his barbarism then

He starts the war
They are rounded up

He finally makes camps made for death
The horrors of places like Auschwitz and Danchau

Will be fresh in the minds of those who witnessed it
And those who were the first to see it

The coward he was he knew the end was near
So he took his own life

Certainly he would have been hanged like the others
He wanted war and got it

Many dead in the war
Their spirits can never be replaced

For we must always remember
The holocaust

[iluvchicago86]

17. Thats a very lovely poem...

and this is the variety that most interests me. The type that revisits historical events and such and forces the reader to face these these things as well, only in such a manner that no movie or history class/book could ever achieve, or aspire to imitate. very cool piece john. keep at it buddy.

[Fovea]

18. a very good start -- my critique.

But now I want to see, feel, hear, and taste more, and be told less.
Keep at it with a paring knife - you have a big sweep of history in one small poem. Pick out one or two moments that say more about less.

For example, a friend of mine once upholstered a chair with the same striped cloth the Vietnamese made American Prisoners of War uniforms out of. He added loops of barbed wire at the arms and legs... it needed no explanation at all to the former POW who bought it from him.

[JohnKleeb]

20. it was for school hmm

you mean like sensory things not my strength I am a storyteller and I cant detail that good keep in mind that i wrote that 2 months ago.

[Fovea]

23. There have been many movements in poetry

In the 20th Century it was about lyrical poetry with strong sensory content.

Philosophical poetry was big up until then (think Lord Tenniscourt's Locksley Hall), but has taken a bit of a dive in popularity.

I freely admit that my critique was based on the 20thC (William Carlos Williams) model. However, you *can* find a fair amount of philosophical poetry in the 20th c. I would look at Ezra Pound, T.S. Elliot, and maybe Housman.

Feel free to disregard my commentary, if you are trying for that model.
The best of that type tends to hang on the strength of a single metaphor or conceit, though.
Remember, great poetry is a process, not an event.

I tend to enjoy Williams, Wilfred Owen, Henry Treece, Wallace Stevens, etc.

You should definately continue to write poetry. Consider the fact that I took the effort to critique your work a validating event. Seriously.
If it were bad, I would not have.

[TheBigGuy]

11. well...me an poetry.

There was a time I was really into reading it.

I used to think I could write it, but I realise I really dont have the kind of facility with language thats requiered to be a poet....with free verse, where things dont rhyme, you'd think it would be easy to write, but it really isnt...that type of poetry seems like "anyone can do it', but really anyone can't.

Good example is Edgar Lee Masters' "Spoon River Anthology". Looks totally simple, but just try your hand at it...or something like TS Elitos "Four Quartets" or "Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock".

[havocmom]

15. Upon skimming the news

Deep inside the heart of me
voices scream for a frontal lobotomy.

[Paul1574]

19. if you like poetry........

you will like this site.....http:\\www.pathetic.org

yes i am a member btw

[Athlien]

21. yet another poet

~delurks~

I fancy myself a poet, too, though I haven't written anything substantial for a few years now. I had a spate where words just wouldn't leave me alone. That muse, she is a fickle one. ;)

My poetry and some other rather silly stuff is here, for any who care to take a peek. I always welcome commentary, criticism, and all that stuff.

I find that these days I've been doing a lot more free writing than actual poetry; it's very cathartic to just close your eyes, and write or type whatever floats into focus in the brain. It may not make a lot of sense, but on the other hand, it's a fine technique to pull out imagery for poems or stories later.

~/delurk~

[patdem]

22. Not a Poet...a Rhymer...and Angstless at that...the WORST kind! LOL

I do not HAVE to rhyme and one of my favorite poems is about experiencing a poverty neighborhood firsthand....

poverty

The rodents and roaches are attracted to it
they always find cavernous passages
into the walls of the run down tenements
and dilapidated dwellings.
They follow the path of least resistance-
those pests.
No expensive poisons laid in their way
but the sweet pungent smell
of yeast and barley beckons them welcome.
And they are here to greet me
when I too
join the ever burgeoning ranks
of the working poor -
paying more for less until I give all for naught.
Then what?
enlarge the holes and join the scavenger pests?
The sound of it surrounds me -
the car in need of a muffler-become-luxurious
rumbles it's way down the street.
My own car
endeavoring to sound like an aviary
under attack by an army of cats.
Human voices -
not of playful children's
unrestrained laughter
but of emasculated adults
begging to be heard -
even by the powerless.
And every night
the human inhabitants fight -
as if to proclaim their existence
each to the other
and their rising voices
take on the characteristics
of a heart monitor
attached to a corpse.
(loud, flat, hopeless)
the gunfire -
never followed
by the anticipated
sirenes-only cadavers are
favored with the blue light special
in these-
the hospice neighborhoods
where all those afflicted
with terminal poverty
can fill the back wards of the city -
inconspicuous,
unobtrusive.
Replete with pain killers
(cocaine, alcohol, crack)
and screams of the hopeless
and blood
and fear

[Rhiannon12866]

24. kick

:kick:

[skip fox]

25. another 'un

:toast:

[Rhiannon12866]

26. One more time!

:hi:

[JohnKleeb]

27. thanks for bumping this

:hi:

[Rhiannon12866]

29. You're welcome, anytime!

It's definitely worth KICKING! ``Bumping'' is something that the freepers do! LOL!
:kick:

[Scottie72]

28. I have written some....

Here is a link to some of mine that are on a really great love poetry site.

This link should get you to the list some of my poems.

<http://www.lovepoetry.com/authorlist.asp?x_searchname=MyersScott>


I haven't written anything in awhile.