Midwest Poet

[everyadventure]

A poet requires a loch.
Ruffled water and a rocky shore
cradled by viridian hills.
Poetry recited here
echoes back,
truth rebounding.

Or even a moor would suffice,
with its rolling mounds of heather
and the ominous, omnipotent sky
looming great-as-God above.
Speak anything here,
shout out, defy!

I have this:
acres of furrowed farmland
and the flat disc of stark sun.
Poetry recited here is
fragmented,

stanzas
splintered
by wind.

[hallaig]

And that's all you need, apparently. Like this a lot and it proves its own case, the section about your landscape is beautiful and sharp. Lochs and moorland are overrated as poetical devices!

(I enclose a picture of the one next door to me)

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_4oS3GO-4KrY/Slei8G7T2fI/AAAAAAAAAj8/iUXKjN40HWY/s320/S7001656.JPG

[hillwalker]

I also felt you did a great job here. There's akways a secret longing in many Brits for the cinematic landscapes of rolling prairie and salt-lick desert. And as you have proven, there's poetry everywhere if you look hard enough.

H

[PrinceMyshkin]

As stark and vivid as the suface is, there is something about the metaphor that feels incomplete to me. For if the loch provides one the affirmation of truth - something we presumably all long for at times - and if the moor permits one to be one's autonomous rebellious self, in defiance of society's many restrictions, what do the stanzas splintered by wind signify vis a vis the complete life? The poem moves, it seems to me, from the powerful generalities of the first two stanzas to an implied more personal level in the last two.

But what a strong, compelling work overall nonetheless.

[everyadventure]

Oh, your loch! It tugs the heart, doesn't it? Anybody else who wants to post a pic of their "place" is welcome to!

[hillwalker]

Oh, your loch! It tugs the heart, doesn't it? Anybody else who wants to post a pic of their "place" is welcome to!

Och - http://www.online-literature.com/forums/album.php?albumid=878 - you don't know what you're missing.

H

[everyadventure]

Och - http://www.online-literature.com/forums/album.php?u=878 - you don't know what you're missing.

H

Oh, how can you show me that and then leave me to rot in this potato field?! Beautiful!!

[everyadventure]

Since you guys shared yours, here's a shot I took today of the infamous potato field. It isn't so terribly ugly this time of year, but spring and fall it's nothing but dirt, and in the winter it's as barren and forbidding as Siberia!

[Jack of Hearts]

Och, this reader didnae realize until just recently how many posters are from the UK.





J

[hallaig]

http://www.visitscotland.com/repository/images/slideshow-images/galleries/2413337/mull

[everyadventure]

You were born in the sea? Or did you sprout from the earth like a buttercup?

Gorgeous. Just the type of place I had in mind while penning (okay, typing) this poem.

[hallaig]

these are not buttercups, madam!

[IceM]

A poet requires a loch.
Ruffled water and a rocky shore
cradled by viridian hills.
Poetry recited here
echoes back,
truth rebounding.

Or even a moor would suffice,
with its rolling mounds of heather
and the ominous, omnipotent sky
looming great-as-God above.
Speak anything here,
shout out, defy!

I have this:
acres of furrowed farmland
and the flat disc of stark sun.
Poetry recited here is
fragmented,

stanzas
splintered
by wind.

It's an interesting perspective from the poem. I would think the freedom on the boundless plains would give reason for more chaotic free verse, an excuse to border on unpoetic verse. Your change at the end towards a smaller, more pause-oriented final stanza caught me by suprise.

One of the perpetual struggles I have with my poetry is developing an ending sufficient for the beginning of my poetry. I often have an image: a moment of solitude in my living room, a reaction to music, a date with my girlfriend. Yet I struggle to find sufficient ways to end the poem without re-iterating what I've said in other poems. This poem has a strong beginning, middle and end, something I might be able to learn from if I had time away from my new sister, born two days ago.

It was a solid work that leaves me suprised by your fragmented consideration of the freedom of the plains. Then again, I'm probably imagining the Great Plains, not what you meant to intend.

And for those of you bragging about your backyards, Yosemite Park is in my backyard, in the winter. I live in a mountain cabin in winter, and a country home in summer. I'll post pictures if I ever buy a camera.

[everyadventure]

I would think the freedom on the boundless plains would give reason for more chaotic free verse, an excuse to border on unpoetic verse. Your change at the end towards a smaller, more pause-oriented final stanza caught me by suprise. It isn't freedom, though... it's the realization that no matter which direction you walk, there is only more of the same. That you are a small, messy person in the midst of stringent, endless rows. And the words that escape your lips are broken, twisted, and scattered as soon as they are uttered...

[MystyrMystyry]

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m605/mystyrmystyry/potato.jpg

[Hawkman]

MM The question is not whether the spud is very large, but whether the man is very small :)

ea: Whilst I enjoyed your poem I would dispute the fundamental concept of the truth behind it. For me, poetry recited in the wild places is lost in the sublime vastness of nature. The poet may be inspired by anything, depending on their muse, but surely the words of the poet are most effective when heard intimately, even in the privacy of the readers head. It's like taking a photograph of a landscape. If the wide angle doesn't make a good composition, then focus on a detail that lies within the whole, and wait for the perfect moment. :)

Live and be well - H

[hillwalker]

MM The question is not whether the spud is very large, but whether the man is very small :)

Forget about size (it don't matter) - are we really meant to believe Quentin Tarantino was a potato farmer before he began directing movies?

H

[everyadventure]

This thread has taken an odd turn, but I love it!

MM: you will be pleased to know that this truck is not too far from me... http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/images/id/IDDRIspud_5295mw.jpg

[MystyrMystyry]

*shudders*

This 'cultural wasteland' - I didn't realise you meant it