Savior Dog

Be still and know that I am dog--indeed. Grinning ear to ear here. So good to have that ungodly sharp eye back with us, that hoard of spot-on observations--good stuff.

I think of those times, our way-back-whens as another time, a strange time, death always a cough away, and DUP where I began participating again  I can't remember if I published my draft of the sign talker shot down bc his fluttering signing hands were seen as threatening by the cops and so they blew his black ass away. my take/experience along with connie of that wonderful poem of his "2 guns in the sky for Daniel Harris" by raymond antrobus. wow wow stuff.

Actually you’re the only one to have caught the word play —dog for god. Hahaaha

which I find amazing. I know the bible fairly well (very very well compared to most) but hardly anyone does anymore. one has to explain, so there is that. i do agree with ted kooser re the simplification thing. I also am a fairly serious lay scholar and have lots of theological insights. Bruno is one of my heroes so that says something right there. I blame it on a phone called "i".

I do not like being obscure in poetry, being an advertising person. So the poem fails because no one picks up on the play. Hahaha

Few people seem to read all that much nowadays. I was bought up on scripture, so it's second nature, like a second language. I'm the kinda guy who has the NT in the original Koine Greek plus Greek/English, Hebrew/English concordance and lexicon.Plus a host of books dealing with Biblical scholarship. So what I consider to be the most basic of allusions is lost to so many todayl But at this point in my development as a poet attracted by a certain subset of a subset, I just keep on down that path but knowing that my stuff cannot resonate with a huge portion of those who come here to DUP, let alone the hoi polloi "out there" who do not read any poetry whatsoever beyond Edgar Guest/Hallmark card offerings--which have their place.

Most reading Magdalene would not recognize that the gardener's presence and the Mary Mary are textually based; most would not recognize the "Maranatha" reference. Your job is to go into the competitive area and joust for the attention of yr target audience, so everything must subordinate itself to that goal. I think of Eliot and Pound, arguing over what to cut in "The Wasteland."  And the arguments against obscurantism vs the clarity of a Kooser or Frost. I am fascinated by your work, both here at DUP and out in the world, where you are, I suspect, a formidable competitor.

I love your poetry. It is accessible, moving, filled with subtle wit and deep, deep insight into the poetry, the Holy Spirit (if you will) which informs the life and breadth and depth and anima of the world--which is poetry. Jesus, for me, is poetry of the heart, soul, the hung-down, brung-down Bob Dylan sang of in the way-back to Ginsberg howling in protest against the madness of the Patriarchy. The poetry of Isaiah 61:1--everything in-time and out-of-time, and all at the same-time. Whew!

I love that Frank O'Hara, on reading a headline about Lana Turner falling down can cry out words to the effect of "GET UP, LANA TURNER. WE LOVE YOU!"

Yeah, buddy. TY for your encouragement. You are very special to me.

Billy Collins is being touted as accessible to the masses and he is all that, for sure. His work is whimsical but the butter knife has spent a good deal of time with the whetstone: don't count 'im out. His elitism comes through with his wine-cellar Riviera references. But...gotta love his taste. And his accessibility.

True, our past feeds our poetry. If we do not exploit what we went through, if there are no details, we will produce mush.

I just saw this today:

Shirley MacLaine said this of Jessica Lange, who can cry on cue. "‘How do you do that, Jessica?’ And Jessica answered, ‘I have a life that’s just been a well of loneliness.’

Nourishing! Thank you, my friend for the long letter. You really have been reborn. After your recent struggles and nearing 80, your voice, even in letters, is different.

Will reread again later. Am on my back trying desperately to sleep.  

Thank you. The best friend was a saving presence during those dark years.