Recently I posed the question “What is your favourite poem/poet ?” as part of The Blue Bookcase’s Literary Hop. What surprised me, apart from how difficult it was to nail it down to one poem, was how much i enjoyed it. By posing this question, with little thought beyond “That it seemed like a good idea!” & I was also curious about the state of poetry throughout the Blogworld, whether beyond a few specialist sites was there an interest for poetry?. Well, I got my answer, and damn my cynicism, poke my eyes out with metaphors, line up an array of verbs, armed to the teeth with rhyme & simile & then plague my ears with onomatopoeia. I was wrong, no not quite right, I WAS WRONG, better, we did fantastic, even those sites that claimed not to like poetry, had poetry they loved. So..I got to thinking that as I enjoyed this a lot, I would post a poem every month, as a regular part of my blog, under the title POMES ALL SIZES, which is a title I’ve borrowed, nay stolen from Jack Kerouac, so it only seems fair that in payment I start with a poem from the man.
Born in Lowell, Massachusetts on the 12th March 1922, Jack Kerouac was the youngest child of French-Canadian immigrants from Quebec. Although better known for his novels, Kerouac is also associated with poetry of the Beat movement, including spoken word. Kerouac wrote that he wanted "to be considered as a jazz poet blowing a long blues in an afternoon jazz session on Sunday”.
COGNAC BLUES.
You get your just dues in
Heaven--------------Heaven’ll
be indifferent to this
indifferent dog
(Yet, honest indifference
were better than cant)
…….really
When I hear pious
bullshit about justice
& democracy and I know
the hypocrites are lying
in their false teeth
I’m not indifferent to God,
I’m indifferent to
me-on-earth
I cant think of anything
more ridiculous than me
on earth----
Really!
Oh, here's another little one, just because I liked it
HAIKU
Came down from my
ivory tower
And found no world.
Jack Kerouac.
wonderful choice to start with ,I love here the Kerouac spoken word on spotify ,recently found out on the road is finally getting made into a movie which should be great it is the same guy that directed the motorcycle diaries a couple of years ago ,all the best stu
ReplyDeleteThanks Stu, will check out Kerouac on spotify. & welcome back.
ReplyDeleteParrish.
I like the haiku :)
ReplyDeleteA film of On the Road? Right! I must get back to it and finish it sooner than later then...
That's a wonderful question!
ReplyDelete@Orhedea: Thank you, Orhedea. I (as you probably realised) was surprised about the response, & as I've always loved poetry, yet in recent years, life's got in the way So this seems like a good way to reconnect & hopefully be introduced to new writers.
ReplyDelete