The Administrative Side

I have to admit I find the administrative side satisfying.  Sending out poems, keeping track of where I have sent poems, noting where poems have been rejected and accepted.  I have now pulled together a chapbook size manuscript from the poems I have written over the last few years (a number of which have been published).  The trick is not to be seduced by that, to think that being published or, better, being organized about being published is an art.  It is not.  It cannot, but will attempt, to substitute itself for the necessary idleness and grace. I don't want to wrap myself in duct tape and think that I have created something..

Sometimes the Poems Just Write Themselves

Other times, not so much.  I like "found object" poetry, poetry that takes a snatch of familiar language, a cliche, an advertising slogan, whatever, and makes it unfamiliar in a pleasing or unsettling way.  Speaking of which, I find it very disturbing how undisturbing most poetry I read is (and I read a fair amount of poetry).  For me, poetry is one place where the profane is the sacred, where language is free to draw on the grotesque, the violent, the taboo.  Not saying any of that is happening below, but it needs to be said.

Erectile Dysfunction

Ask your doctor

If your heart

Is strong enough

For sex and what

Comes after

The exhalation

And the contemplation

Of all the day’s

Little plans and

Jealousies

And the almost

Invisible incline

Compacted

Of coincidence

And stubbornness

Which I suppose

Led your faithless

Heart to this bed.

Keith Dunlap