Haibun
Ash
When we truly
exist, we are in the moment. Here and now. For Leonard
Cohen, poetry is “the evidence of life.” It bears witness to
our existence, though he concludes, “If your life is burning
well, poetry is just the ash.”
into the mic
a few words uttered
wild applause
In the end, though, we know our words fall short. As Master
Dogen reminded his disciples, he reminds us also: “Cast away
all speech. Our words may express it, but cannot hold it.”
Yet we press on with our attempts because we are alive.
Because we are filled with something greater than our
selves. And because at our core, we burn with spirit. So
this day—every day—we celebrate the moment keenly perceived.
The life burning well.
poems that
extrapolate
emptiness
Paha Sapa*
big sky day—
clouds falling off
the compass
All is green and blue, save for the flat-bottomed cumulus.
Skirting three invisible state lines, there is only prairie.
Some windmills and water troughs to serve bovine herds dark
on the horizon.
verdant gulleys—
snow fencing snakes
out of season
Here at Mule Creek Junction, the decisive turn east, all
east. Through Dakota, I think of home. But the landscape
returns me to the here and now—folding, shifting, darkening.
great plain
interrupted—
black hills
Ions
for Marshall Soulful Jones
Blackboard
wisdom replaces the gods of old. With authority and
authenticity, he gathers truth to him, then conducts and
releases it. Plato, too, noted that Poetry is nearer to
vital truth than history. In Ion, his Socrates explores the
nature of poetic inspiration in its performance. He asks, is
the bard skilled or inspired? It is the latter, he resolves,
a conjuring of divine inspiration by the Muses. Our
post-modern teacher, though, focuses on our connected
existence and nature, our expression and communication. And
despite Socrates’ whys and wherefores, this new master of
the spoken word proves again and again that artists fuse
these forces by their own skilled hands.
united
field of ions,
spiraling
About
Matthew Caretti, US
Bio Text
—
This is
Matthew Caretti's
first appearance in Sketchbook.
Photo Here
