Another set of five poems now appears on my page, “The Conference” and four additional pieces.
This set takes a different tone from the first set (Make It Yours + 4). While a sense of play still pervades, the tone can be rougher at times, the awe of our folly unfiltered.
The fulsome praise and carrying on described in the title poem, “The Conference,” will be familiar to anyone who has attended one of those save the date conventions or institutes or professional trade gatherings, with break out groups, keynote addresses, preconference workshops, post-conference leadership summits, etc. This is stuff that happens at the conference but doesn’t necessarily stay there!
Here’s a verbal thumbnail of the other poems:
“Work Release” is a commentary on our digital culture.
“Wink and Noodle” is, as the title implies, a wink and a noodle on peoples’ names, written in the micro-poetic style I will always practice and enjoy. This is the giddiest poem of the set.
“Another One” has a bunch of f-bombs in it, but it is a ribald account of the piquant observations and discoveries made by a terrific team of plumbers here at the house recently.
“The Eternal Landscape of the Past” is homage to the great poets who have come before as well as a bit of a window into the makeup of every poet’s mind.
The set as a whole is in the spirit of Fyodor Dostoyevsky (from The Devils, C. Garnett trans.):
“I simply confine myself as chronicler to recording events precisely as they happened, and it is not my fault if they seem incredible.”