Intimate Coney Island of the MindIntimate
Poems are always intimate, about something personal that touches us. More intimate than prose. How much intimacy can you bear to put on paper, let alone on a monitor screen? How much courage do you need before you show your poems to someone? True, of course it depends on what you’re writing about. If you write about it being a nice day outside and it still rhymes, there’s nothing to worry about. Lawrence Ferlinghetti described it well in his poem: „Constantly risking absurdity and death, whenever he performs above the heads of his audience, the poet like an acrobat climbs on rime to a high wire of his own making…“
Writing poetry is hard for me to grasp, but I love to read it and admire anyone who takes the time to write poetry. I’m not a poet myself, though I have written a few poems. You can read them here.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti / from A Coney Island of the Mind
“ Constantly risking absurdity
and death
whenever he performs
above the heads
of his audience
the poet like an acrobat
climbs on rime
to a high wire of his own making
and balancing on eyebeams
above a sea of faces
paces his way
to the other side of day
performing entrechats
and sleight-of-foot tricks
and other high theatrics
and all without mistaking
any thing
for what it may not be
For he’s the super realist
who must perforce perceive
taut truth
before the taking of each stance or step
in his supposed advance
toward that still higher perch
where Beauty stands and waits
with gravity
to start her death-defying leap
And he
a little charleychaplin man
who may or may not catch
her fair eternal form
spreadeagled in the empty air
of existence.“