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Today we have a guest-blogger for Poetics, and I let her introduce herself:
What Poet Inspired You?
Hello everyone! I’m tending bar today – for the first time! And to get this out of the way, what do you call me? My Google account I use to visit non-Word Press blogs is Hayes Spencer. This is a combination of several family names jumbled together to make this identity. I have a blog on WP. Kanzen Sakura. Those who follow that blog, often call me Kanzen which is fine. My given name is Toni. Either is fine. If interested in learning more about me, you can find out more on my About Page at my blog: http://kanzensakura.com/ I am most happy to be asked to do this and I am pumped.
To honor this auspicious occasion, the bar is stocked with several of the highest grades of sake: Junmai Ginjo and Junmai Daiginjo – nothing but the best for this crowd! And because I feel good conversation is the most intoxicating wine of all, I have set out on the bar along with the sakes, a big platter of my Southern Fried chicken, karaage chicken wings, deep fried tofu cubes with tonkatsu dipping sauce (a South meets East buffet). There is also a never ending pitcher of sweet iced tea. So make yourselves comfy. “Set and stay awhile” as we say in these parts. Make yourself at home. And talk – please talk.
Today, as in several previous Poetics, the theme is Inspiration. I wasn’t born writing poetry. I was inspired to write poetry. I forever owe a debt of thanks to our school librarian, Miss Minnie – a wise woman and apparently able to see into the future. When I went on my weekly journey to get reading material (I was currently on a diet of Emerson, Thoreau, and Dickinson), she handed me A Book. It was the poems of T.S.Eliot. I took it home with me and after thumbing through, decided on The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Intrigued by the character name, I began to read. Outside my bedroom window, was an old and patient oak tree. Many times, day or night, sun or snow or rain, I used the branch by my window to go across to that special place where the branches converged, forming a good seat for me. I went to my place and began to read. When I read the last line, it seemed light exploded behind my eyes and I almost fell from the tree.
“Till human voices wake us, and we drown”.
A couple of weeks earlier, my great-grandmother, my grandfather’s mother, had died. We had been sitting around in her bedroom on death watch. A few of her children began murmuring, breaking the silence. She opened her eyes, gasped several times, and died. When I read that last line, it said to be exactly what had occurred. I found a real part of my life in a poem. For several days I read that poem. I wanted to write poems that spoke to people. I wanted people to feel that light explode behind their eyes. I began to write poetry. I was just short of my 12th birthday.
I have not written any great poetry. I have not been published. I make no pretensions to being an intellectual or great creative person. I simply write the words that flow from inside me. I began to read Ginsberg, Burrows, Kerouac, Snyder, Issa, Basho. I went on the road, I howled, I went to poetry readings and listened and read my own. But T.S. Eliot inspired me to write. Lines from Prufock seem to pop up at any time and define what I am perceiving or what is going on in my life at any given time. This poem inspired me to write about life as I saw and felt it. My poetry of 1967 – 1976 is different just as I am different today. But that same spark ignites.
So. Which poet inspired you to write poetry? Whose style influenced you most? Do you incorporate any of their style, diction, imagery, etc. into your own poetry? Talk to me. Tell me. I have told who and which poem inspired me. Now please, write a poem about that poet and/or poem. And if you want to take the prompt even further, write the poem in the style of that poet.
For those of you joining us for the first time, below are some helpful steps. If you are joining us for the first time, let us know in the comments or a note with your poem so we can visit and encourage you. And as a reminder to those of you who participate regularly, please visit, read and comment on other poems. This is how we encourage and get to know each other in this community of poetics. People will be posting after you so be sure to come back. The link will be open for 33 hours. If you are a regular and haven’t been reading and commenting, please do so.
What to do:
- Write your poem and post it to your blog.
- Add a link to your poem via the ‘Mr Linky’ below.
- This opens a new screen where you’ll enter your information. This is also where you choose links to read. Once you have pasted your poem’s blog URL and entered your name, click Submit. Don’t worry if you don’t see your name right away; try refreshing the page and your link should appear in the list.
- Please do take time to read and comment on other people’s work to let them know it’s being read. It is this aspect of what we do here that builds our community and helps each of us to develop as poets.
- Share your work and that of your fellow poets via your favorite social media platforms.
- Above all – have fun!
Hello every one, I will step into the background and let Toni handle the bar.. I will be standing her sipping my sake
Try the Black Dragon. it has a wonderful umami whisper that gives it a bit of savory. Afterwards, try the Shimizu no Mai – a lovely spring tasting sake. Be careful – sake is sneaky.
And of course you serve it chilled 🙂
But of course! the heated stuff is for cheap sake and cheap sake is not allowed. Although the Black Dragon is also good at room temp.
hey – good evening… and nice to see you behind the bar hayes… mine’s up… will do most of the reading tomorrow though… happy tuesday everyone!!
Happy lovely May day to you! There is some good reading here.
Happy Tuesday Claudia.. wonderful to have you here, and now in May it’s not completely dark at 9PM.. time flies.
Hello everyone! The slow bus that is my internet carrier has dropped me off at the pub at long last. Already, I have a growing list of new poets to read based on your poems of tribute.
Same here.. the list is growing. But we are an international community 🙂
I found it a little difficult.. I had to go back a long way and of course then it was all Swedish.. I can give other examples of Swedish poets I like.. but I think I managed to dig out the single poem that has resided in the back of my head ever since school.
I think those early poems truly did influence us. Mary mentions Emily Dickinson who I studied in college and the book of poems I bought then resides in a permanent place on my bedside table.
Looking forward to hearing and seeing all the poets and poetry we are paying homage to tonight. I would love to call you Sakura – since you too love Japanese things and are as fragrant as a cherry blossom… And just to add yet another name to your arsenal.
I couldn’t make up my mind between three of my favourite poets, so I did a poem in the style of each… and challenge you to try and guess who they are…
Ha.. you are making it extremely difficult for me I think… 🙂
I like this quiz and have put forth my guesses. I love Sakura and a modern day Samurai used to call me that. Misosazai was what he called me most often – Wren, because I am small, a bit of a busybody, and audacious. Sakura is fine! I do love them so and Japanese things. I can hardly wait to find how badly I guessed as to the three poets in your poems. Interest take on the prompt and I did enjoy it so much, I’m reading the three again.
Well done for being brave! And you did VERY well on the guessing!
Toni, I too look forward to seeing who inspired whom. I will comment later today as I have visitors.
It will be good to see you when you can! Have a nice time.
Well, if I had to think back on which poets may have inspired me to write poetry, I would have to say I am not 100% sure, as it was quite a while ago. If I had to guess, hmmm…I would list a few poets: Rod McKuen, who was my poetry hero for a while, then Emily Dickinson. Also e.e.cummings (I enjoyed his lack of caps) and Don Marquis who wrote the archy and mehitabel poems. However, I did not write about /in the style of any of those poets. Instead I chose a much more recent favorite…Gregory Orr, a much more recent favorite! I would like to be able to write well in his style more than any other poet’s style at the moment.
And it is a wonderful poem! I too am enjoying reading the poems from this prompt. My list grows longer and longer!
I went through an e.e. cummings phase too – and tried to write all my school essays without caps. The teachers were not amused! And thanks for introducing me to a new poet – I hadn’t heard of Gregory Orr.
I have started to do the opposite.. using caps and also trying to punctuate my poem.. but I don’t think I have picked it up from any role model..
Emily Dickinson is my role model on punctuation – all those dashes!
I love my semi-colons 🙂
In today’s world, semi-colons are the new dash. 🙂
I am having a good laugh – add to that Emily Dickinson’s dashes AND using purple ink and you have the teacher’s pet – not!
Various poets have “spoken” to me at different times so hard to pick ONE! I like haiku of Basho and Issa and humor of Ogden Nash. i also like e.e. cummings’ style of no capitals so i don’t often use capital letters in my poetry either…somehow it seems more approachable. Glad you revealed a bit of your online identity, Toni, and happy to see you tending the bar today.
I never thought of the no capitals as making it more approachable but now I can see it. I’ve had different poets speak to me during my life as well. I like how we pick up elements of style, verbiage, etc. and then make them ours.
And I must add, my cat’s name for me is “Food NOW”.
I haven’t really read a lot of poets until recently, but one in particular influenced me a lot in childhood, so perhaps I will go with that one. Great to see you hosting the bar, Toni 🙂
Thank you! I am having fun. I have a list i’m keeping by my keyboard. So many new poets (to me) to read and explore now. I am looking forward to your poem. Those childhood influences stay with us when others fade.
Nice of you to host tonight. Thanks for the clarification of you name(s). I’m not sure I followed the prompt accurately but I posted something I enjoyed writing. Have fun at the bar!
My comment disappeared but I have posted another about your poem. It is a lovely poem and your inspiration for the poem most excellent.
Oh here it’s getting late… and there is a day tomorrow as well.. I hope I can read the rest when dawn has broken… 🙂
Join us when you can. As my husband says, tomorrow is a school day so gotta hit the sheets early. Sleep well.
Speaking of what poet inspired you, I am so enjoying hearing the names of members of the dVerse Pub being bandied about. I for one followed Bjorn here. And truly, reading what everyone submits has been true pleasure for me as well as the comments made on the poems of others. I feel like I am in university again and learning something new and different. 🙂
Hello Toni! So glad to have you behind the bar… Been a bit busy, didn’t write my poem for this prompt until 4am this morning before bed… haha. Will do a few reads now and try for most tomorrow.
Good to see you hosting Toni ~ I am a late bloomer in writing poets so I am really learning and appreciating all the poets that I have come across in my readings and following the links of others ~ If I could pinpoint one poet who inspired me to write, it would be Pablo Neruda ~ The passion in his voice is one that I would like to echo and find it in my writing ~
Wishing you and everyone here Happy Tuesday 🙂
It is so funny that you mention Thoreau and Emerson, Toni. I cannot say I began with them, but after college, I got into a serious transcentalism phase through them and don’t think I have ever gotten past it (for sure, I have not). In fact, just last week, I posted a poem about an early Emerson ‘wow!’ moment I had those many years ago as part of my Napowrimo experiment. I will link to that one. Won’t change the world, but you might like it. Thanks for tending bar!
I first found Ogden Nash as a young fifth grader.
This is an interesting challenge. Like others have said, it was Bjorn who led me to this site.
I have busy early day tomorrow, so I am signing off. Any leftovers, please take them home with you or else my husband and my cat will eat themselves into a coma. Thank you all for letting me do this. I had a great deal of fun and I collected a whole big list of new poets to read. Oyasumi no mina!
Great job.. and what treat you served here tonight..
I am glad. I added the tofu for vegan/vegetarian although, I am very fond of it. On a trip to Chicago years ago, I went into Chinatown, the fried tofu cubes was a street food. I figured out how to fix it. My husband even likes it.
Me and my wife once made tofu starting from soybeans… it took a long time, but it was delicious..
good morning… on my round to read what you brought to the table…
Good morning! good to see you. Oh Claudia, so many new and different poets to read, based on these inspirations. And to discover some of those who inspired are members of dVerse. I think that is beyond cool.
Good morning here too, will start a fresh bout of reading and note-taking – I’m loving all your links!
Good morning. Lovely prompt. But Windows Update did strange things again to my laptop, and it’s taken 2 hours to get it started and – once again – Word is missing. Back to square one, and all inspiration (and bookmarks) fled! I will read later.
Computer problems.. they always tend to do the worst to us.. (and sometimes the best). I have almost ceased to use word in favor of Google docs. It’s always there as long as I have a connection.
I’ll have a try, but would prefer the devil I know if I can re-install it!
😉 indeed.
What a great night I missed…
Toni – great post and idea! But since my own initial inspiration to start writing in my early teens wasn’t a poet, I got stuck with it. So I’m sorry, I have nothing to link…
Hope your dreams are sweet 🙂
There’s still time. Doesn’t have be as a teen. some of the people who linked didn’t start reading or getting into poetry until they were an adult. So if that helps you out any, go for it!
I would say after reading that there are prose that has inspired me just as much as poetry.
This is very true. I think a few people did that which I enjoyed reading.
I’ll be back later to discover everyone’s revelations for this marvelous prompt. Thank you Toni and Bjorn and dVerse poets!
Sorry I cannot post on your blog! Here’s for your poem: I would want to be the puppy in this poem–haha! The steps of the humans are ponderous beneath the darkness, whether of sky and earth. The glass is shattered, so let’s have tea. Very Elliott! Bravo!
Shakespeare had the greatest impact, but also Gerald Manley Hopkins, Keats, Emily Dickinson and many more. I don’t think I write like any of them – the words just flow out and find their own form as often as not. Whether it works or not is in the minds of others.
Rod McKuen definitely influenced me many years ago. I am happy that someone left the pub door open a crack so I could sneak in at the last minute. 🙂
Dorothy Parker often comes to mind. However, these days I am building up a collection of French poets in the hopes of improving my french. It is working! 😉
“Les larmes sont les pétales de coeur.” Paul Eluard