Categories
Napowrimo

#3 – ‘why I didn’t write a poem’

I wrote
an oak is a malignant acorn

but the new hornbeam leaves were opening
like tiny fans.

——-
I really will try and manage something rather longer soon. Harry

Categories
Culture

Robert Creeley RIP

Robert Creeley died. I’m not familiar with his work.

There are lots of poets whose work I don’t know as well as I should, of course. But I’m always surprised by how little poetry crosses the Atlantic. You’d think it would be a quite naturally international activity.

Categories
Culture

Caravaggio – the final years

No, really, that’s what the exhibition was called.

I suspect a few Caravaggio-related poems will turn up during napowrimo, because I can’t afford to waste material. It had me thinking, though, what would the poetry version of chiaroscuro be? The effect of chiaroscuro in a painting – to highlight a few points and draw the eye to them – is of course something that language does very naturally. But would there be a way of writing that be analogous to the contrasting areas of light and dark? And what would the effect be?