blockhead's Blog

What is it about bowling that makes it so exciting? Is it that distant grouping of soldier pins, so impudent and perfect? Is it their shape, so curvy and sensuous? Or perhaps they remind you of a street gang, daring you to hit them, standing out in the open, uncaring and brave.

No, it is the violence. Where else can you get rid of your secret mental urgings to strike back at your insidious foes, to smash them into smitherines for what they did to you? All the better that they can not strike back. You were the vulnerable one smitten when your back was turned, laid low by a sucker punch below the belt.

But, short of going to jail, there is no way for you to get even. If you did, you'd be just as bad as they. No, you're a lady and ladies do not hit back.

So, go ahead, take aim, disturb their sleep a little. Boy, that felt good. But, wait, suppose they have feelings, too? I never thought of that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ten pins standing at attention,
Quiv'ring at the slightest mention
Of that spherical black lightning --
Three eyes vacant, twisting, fright'ning.
With deadly aim it bursts asunder
Their peaceful stance and plows them under.
White bodies flying, crashing,
No mercy shown, no love, no caring.
One club is grazed and starts to topple,
But from the side a nasty pop'll
Send it spinning down the pike.
A voice is screaming, 'I got a strike!'.
Resignation then sets in:
They get right up -- to fall again.

I write poetry for the masses. No death and grief for me. Let me know what you think.

5.

The Old and Dying

When my mother died, it was like blowing out a candle, almost as if she was ready for a vacation. When death comes, I hope it is that simple for me; perhaps living was much harder than dying, at that moment (time and place) for her; Christ being in her corner, she felt much safer, she wanted to go?, she just wasn?t sure if she had enough wind to blow?, to blow out the candle. Thus, it proves: the old and dying are wiser.

#1161 [2/2/06] A Prose Poem

6.

A Light Sleepy Winter [In Minnesota: February 7, 2006]

Outside the snow is light; it?s been a thin winter. Now being February, I don?t think the earth fell to sleep this season; tired as it may be from a busy summer and fall. I suppose it can wait and get its sleep next year, and freeze us all to hell.

#1189 2/7/06

7.

Before Us Humans

Before us humans, God created other humans?, do not fret; heaven has its own ways, its own breath. In any case, these humans of long ago put their handprints on many a walls; built many a stone shelters; built things yet not seen.

I think they were saying?in their own cleaver way: ?Look, we were here before you?whoever you are?enjoy the scenery: it?s a short stay.?

#1188 2/7/06

See Dennis' web site: http://dennissiluk.tripod.com

To many people contemporary poetry is a turn-off. The reason for this is that the majority of these poems are boring. They are so because they fail to enable people to identify with them. The bulk of modern poetry is no longer about reader identification but about information transfer, information that could just as easily be conveyed in a prose form. These poems are written merely to convey the poet's thoughts and feelings about a specific event, situation or place he or she has experienced or is in the act of experiencing. The poet is not necessarily concerned with whether the reader is moved or not by the poem, so long as he or she understands clearly the information the poet is trying to convey. This may consist of some ?important? insight gained from an experience, or it could be (as is usually the case) a jaded statement or commentary about some mundane aspect of contemporary life.

The popular song at its best, however, does more than this. It excites both the imagination and emotions; it enables you to unlock your own highly personal box of images, memories, connections and associations. This is most readily evidenced in the songs of Bob Dylan. Even the most perfunctory of his songs is able to do this to a greater extent than most ?serious? poetry. This is because his songs (and to a lesser extent songs in general) frequently utilise imprecise and abstract statements rather than particular and specific ones. Contemporary poetry, on the other hand, does the exact opposite of this: it utilises particular and specific statements rather than imprecise and abstract ones.

Dylan is not afraid to generalise, for he knows that it is only through generalisation that the reader can recognise the specific. Keats understood this when he said that a poem ?should surprise by a fine excess, and not by singularity? and that ?it should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost as a remembrance? (letter to John Taylor, 27 February 1818).

David Bleich, in Readings and Feelings champions the creative powers of the reader. He believes writing about literature should not involve suppressing readers? individual concerns, anxieties, passions and enthusiasms because ?each person?s most urgent motivations are to understand himself?. And as a response to a literary work always helps us find out something about ourselves, introspection and spontaneity are to be encouraged. Every act of response, he says, reflects the shifting motivations and perceptions of the reader at the moment of reading, and even the most idiosyncratic and autobiographical response to the text should be heard sympathetically. In this way the reader is able to construct, or create, a personal exegesis by utilising the linguistic permutations inherent in the text to construct units of meaning constituted from a predominantly autobiographical frame of reference. The ambiguities present in Dylan?s oeuvre enable the listener to do exactly this.

Jeffrey Side has had poetry published in various magazines including: T.O.P.S., The White Rose, Poetry Salzburg Review, ism, Sphinx and Homeground. And his poems have appeared on various poetry web sites such as Poethia, nthposition, Ancient Heart Magazine, Blazevox, hutt and Cybpher Anthology.

He has reviewed poetry for New Hope International, Stride Magazine, Acumen and Shearsman Magazine. From 1996 to 2000 he was the assistant editor of The Argotist magazine. He now runs The Argotist Online web site:

http://www.argotistonline.co.uk/index.html