Diarized Poetry (Reposted from my poetry blog)

I posted this over at my poetry blog, Poetical Psyche, and thought my readers here at Sqwerm would find it interesting as well.  

When all is said and done, will this be just another posting, or shall it become the birth of new form?

Diarized Poetics, at its essence, is about connecting the personal to the abstract.  You are constructing sheets for understanding, pages of analysis.  You are the composer, to a never-ending composition, as so long as exhalation and inhalation conspire to inflate/deflate lungs and chest.

The form is intended to be truthful, yet it would be foolish to put a plate of fruit before a lover of fruit, stipulating he/she may feast, but from the sweet flesh of but one.  With this realization in mind, if the author of the composition chooses to fabricate life in the diarized inserts, than he or she would be no different than any life giving composer or creative.  It is in every writer to lie in the same notion that it is standardized fare for each writer to feel, and yes being numb is a form of feeling.  So all this said, let me introduce to you the Poetic form of Diarized Poetics.  I may not utilize form as often as others, yet I’m very schooled in the history of poetry and the richness, variety and nuance of said history.  Over the years I’ve amassed numerous books of reference and the ilk, illustrating and defining poetic shape and form.  While much of each repeats from edition to edition, each is shaped by it’s own interpretive candor, it’s own touch.  All this said, I’ve never found a form like I’ll be describing in a few moments.  I’m not ignorant; therefore it is entirely plausible that a similar form is already in existence.  While this may be the case or it may not be the case, the form itself is what’s up for discussion and exploration. 

My intent is to provide others an outlet by design.  An outlet where their experiences can align with abstract or shaded poetical argument, hopefully offering a much more fulfilling journey than mere journaling or poeticizing alone can do.

Together, in combination, diarized entry alongside poetic interpretation and voice will offer a medium for attraction as well as a sense of contrast, from which we can put it aside, only to revisit at a clearer or later point.  Upon the return my aim, the aspiration, is for this revisiting to unleash answers or roadmaps to those answers.  At the very least I believe this form will provide understanding.   I hope others enjoy the form:

Diarized Poetics

The rules are simple.  There is no one correct alignment or way to work within, outside the overriding premise itself:  Each poetic offering in the diarized style must include a diary, journal, log style of entry, immediately followed by an abstract or expanding short piece of reflective poetry upon that piece of journaling.  An example:

August 3^rd, 2011.         Awoke to the sound of thunder.  Removed the outer edge of my curtains, and then crinkled apart a few folds in the blinds.  Outside I could see a heavy rainfall and a completely darkened sky, which is not exactly strange for 3:00am, but for some reason the sensation within me was met with an exact replica of surprised, even betraying emotions. 

Darkness

Bends and folds

Cursing the naturalistic reservoir

Chastising the foundations of dawn

Unearthing sentiments reserved for swans

Only to bury the duckling, ugly as the pond it’s ever known

Broken shard of lighted ray

Unleashing wrath upon this early day

A seedling

A spawn to be

August 3^rd, 2011.         The rain came down for most of the morning.  The streets were still sopping from the deluge, yet the air is like a blanket of wool, smothering the breath prior to consumption.  The sky had ceased it’s tearing, perhaps for two hours now, yet the dampness was everywhere, the uncomfortable relation to soggy jeans and over-weighted cotton fabric, as they bear additional burden upon the spine, not enough to damage, yet enough to shape impression and momentum of mood.  The spinning of the water could be heard as treads made their way over it’s fluid form, stopping only as the shift is thrust into parked position.  The hand rests for a hesitating moment atop the leathered gear control, for reasons I do not know, nor am I aware of what happened those thirty seconds or so my eyes went void and focus became lost in a trancelike disembodiment, there, at the concrete abutment of the convenience store.  I exited the car, double checking I tapped the automatic locking sensor, fully aware of my sneakers as its rubber descending into and out from puddles, large enough, one might, in that moment, have been able to convince me they were like oceans for the mosquitos swarming to the lighting fixtures at the parking lots perimeter.  I entered the store, waited in line, only to find out the numbers I intended to play were sold out for the day.  I glanced at my watch and realized it was late.  So to extinguish that wasted trip feeling I get in such instances, I made a purchase, any purchase.  Pack of gum, spearmint, and a scratcher.  I did not win.

Conundrum of sound

Elicited by the absence

Yet remnants frame the hours

In it’s fractured apocalyptic scenery

Frozen into where

Bonded to the Why

How

The second entry here was purposely elongated to indicate, again, there is no right or wrong way to conduct a journal or diary entry submitted to your private notebook, therefore there is no right or wrong way to conduct it’s composition here within the poem.  In fact one, if it’s how they traditionally composed their entries could simply write:

8/3/11 Woke. Went to the bathroom.  Showered.  Took pills. Ate a cup of yogurt.  Had a glass of orange juice.  Went to the doctors. Came home

To which the poetical “call-back” would, again, be whatever happens to flow into your mind, whether it be a summary, a feeling, an offshoot, or whatever it may be that fits your poetical fancy.

Also, write the way that comes naturally to you.  It doesn’t have to be grammatically correct, unless of course you spell-check or white out/erase your entries to begin with.  The voice you use should be however it is you choose to use.  Here, I just wrote, much of it came out a bit more like poetic prose than how I sound now, composing this explanation, or how I typically sound when I go back through old journal entries.  But, with that said, it’s what came out and so I left it as is.

Again, your entries do not have to be factual.  They can be whatever you choose them to be.  However, I will say, you’ll gain much more from the form and the purpose of the exercise, by documenting truthful or real experience, thought, reflection & emotion than you will get by using fictional entries.

I’ve done several of these.  They’ve all been truthful to this point.  One day I’ll share them, perhaps.  But I’m not at that point yet.  I’ve gone back to the earliest ones and have found a bit more understanding.  I’m in a place, where I’m sure I’m not alone.  Perhaps that’s the reason I came up with this form in the first place.

I really don’t know, but I thought that it was only proper to share a tool that does truly hold potential, wherein I’m hopeful it will be able to be used by others, to assist with the sorting out and working through all the various intricacies that exist within their own “places, where specialized sets of circumstances are not the rarity but the norm.

Poets.  People.  This form is for anyone that needs it.  Feel free to share to anyone you feel might be in need of such an outlet, or miring in a “place” of their own.