sketch book xerox

RYOBI my Sweet one

If I were to just pick up that RYOBI power drill,

It's always the RYOBI drill.

Not the Dewalt, not the Milwaukee, not even the Black & Decker.

Just maybe i'd anchor in those shelves I built.  

Yes the ones sitting in my closet for the past year.

Those shelves.

Every few months I dig them out, hold them against the wall and imagine how nice it would be to have them,

To use them,

To fill up the surface,

But instead i let them sit against the wall. 

And eventually they find their way back into the closet.  

Oh sweet RYOBI,

Navy blue in color,

Yellow type.

That sound you make, when i use your brilliance.

Unfortunately I own the orange Black & Decker.

And it has a cord.

It's time for a trade in. 

Ducked tape poem

Response #1 to D.M.

Question: Do i see form & language as something that is expressive? or lacking expression?

Does a writer impose/infuse meaning and content in language?  Or does language carry it's own meaning and content?

Definition "Form:" The visual shape or configuration of something, arrangements of parts of people or things, arrangement of literary or musical composition. Essential nature of a person or thing. Mold, structure, the way a thing exists, or appears, manifestation. A document with blank spaces for words to be inserted.

Definition "Language:" method of communication either spoken or written, consisting in the use of words in a structured and conventional way, mode of communication specific to a people or location, manner or style of language or speech. 

Answering a question with a question.

How can one not see form and language as expressive?  Flatly speaking, those things (form & language) are fundamental parts of being.  Every one of us uses language either written or spoken as a mode of expression. Expression of needs, wants, desires, etc.  These being used on certain degrees of necessity, creativity, understanding, indulgence, what have you. By using language you are releasing that which is in your mind, which ='s expression.  Now form, this is more tricky but i also view this as expressive.  Form requires deeper thought. Visual thought on shapes textures, movements, arrangement, pattern, contour, gesture, of words, ideas or objects. This is form.  Therefore the mind must generate solutions to express form to others and ones self. 

My answer is yes, they are expressive.

Now to the second half of the question. 

A writer does both.  They will impose and infuse meaning and content in language. As does language carry its' own meaning and content.  Tricky question.  Emphasis on "trick."  

For a reader to be carried by a string of words ie. a poem, the reader must impose a succesful infusion of thoughts onto a page. The act of writing and having another read the material  is imposing thoughts and ideas onto the reader. And quite honestly i feel like writers want to make people understand where they are coming from, what they are saying.  So naturally it's imposing.  But to do this every writer tries to infuse meaning to let the reader be "carried away" by the words.  

Language naturally carries its own meaning and content.  Historically language has specific meanings, particular to individuals at a time, place, or location. Now language carries it's own meaning and content by definition. The word language itself has many definitions. This is where form comes into play.  The writer must understand the language well enough to use it in proper form according to the time, place, and location.  Here the writer imposes the infusion of language onto a page through form, inevitably revealing creative expression. 

The End. 

What in the name is concrete poetry anyways?

"Poetry in which visual elements play a large part in the poetic effect.  Punctuation marks, letters, or words are arranged on a page to form a visual design: a cross, for example, or a bumblebee.

Max Bill and Eugene Gomringer were among the early practitioners of concrete poetry; Haroldo de Campos and Agusto de Campos are among contemporary authors of concrete poetry." (www.gale.cengage.com/free_resources/glossary/glossary_bc.htm)

"The words of the poem are arranged in such a way that the physical shape of the poem on the page resembles the subject of the poem, ie/ a poem about a rabbit will be shaped to look like a rabbit."  (www.daffodil.ca/english/glossary_of_literary_terms.html)

"The origins of concrete poetry are roughly contemporary with those of musique concrete, an experimental technique of musical composition. Max Bill and Eugen Gomringer were among the early practitioners of concrete poetry. The Vienna Group of Hans Carl Artmannk, and Gerhard Rumm, and Konrad Bayer also promoted concerete poetery, as did Ernst Ju Jandi and Friederike Mayrocker." 

(www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/238238/Eugen-Gomringer)

or for a nice history on shapes and lines and dots which create this thing called letters, which form words, which spill from our brains explore 

http://jds-concrete.com/HISTORY.HTM\

OR FOR EVEN MORE FUN YOU MUST CHECK THIS OUT!!!  

http://wild-about-woods.org.uk/elearning/concretepoetry/

Dick Durrand's Accordion

Oh what a little blanket of sweet hopes and dreams.

Come now.

Gentle now.

Quiet now.

I'm seducing you.

You have a luster about you.

It comes from below.

Interesting.

Especially how you came about.

Can you see me playing the accordion?

Dick Durrand of Osceola, WI with his big buck tooth smile and potent coffee breath.

He plays the accordion.

I only saw him on Sunday mornings wearing his dark grey church suit.

When i felt ugly, he saw my beauty.

This old man would sneak up and put his arm around my shoulders after every church service.

It was as if I was his own daughter.

He enjoyed poking fun and would ask how many boys were "knocking on my doorstep this week?"

As a teenager there were few if any knockers.

But my eyes would role and i'd brush off Dick's comments.

He asked to play his accordion at my high school graduation.

Pink cheeked and embarrassed I declined, of course not knowing the instruments beauty.

He'd say, "Oh i know, I was just teasing about the accordion.  Your friends would probably laugh and tease!"

Secretly I always wanted him to play me the accordion.

I pray Dick will be able to play for me one day, like he always asked to.

Maybe we could play together.

And then just maybe, it would be one of Dick Durrand's very own accordions that I play.