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THE KAMA SUTRA FOR THE HIDEOUSLY UGLY
The Kama Sutra for the Hideously Ugly is not something I will ever read. Technique is all very good, but beauty’s what I need. It’s a complicated subject—why does beauty matter? What advantage for my...
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NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSIT
When you accepted this one horror as good a small leak in your splendid ship caused you to drown and still you think you are sailing with seaweed around your neck and gray, bloated face, defending the...
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WHEN THE FAMOUS WERE NOT FAMOUS
I asked the god of love: what is the highest bliss? and the god said, “to be completely famous,” and I had other questions—but this? Fame is the highest bliss? Fame? Why would the love-god say this? I...
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MY HOBBY IS STARING
I, the more ugly, brought you up from the ugly into my beautiful eyes— which saw you for what you were. Over a period of eleven days we forgot your ugly disguise. A hideous mouth became kissable—...
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AT FIRST WE DID NOT PLAN TO LOVE
At first we did not plan to love; books of lieder piled by pianos did not exist, planning itself was all; shadowy and hungry, we wanted to survive; it surprised us when our race turned beautiful and...
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IF I REPLY TO YOU
If I reply to you, it will be another poem so I will stay silent. The philosophical mind (by philosophical I do not mean knowing, but endlessly open and curious) gathers all that’s necessary for the...
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MY GREAT GREAT GRANDFATHER WAS A JERK
All of a sudden I am hearing things. My experience is writing poetry. I know—from living long and sadly examining the pessimistic wrong which tortured my ancestors— joyous poetry which could have...
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THE POOR
For William Logan The poor will never be in my poems. First, there’s the sentimental factor, which critics can never abide. Like cliché, the sentimental is the kiss of death. Second, whatever is poor...
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PURE AND IMPURE
We’ve listened too long to defenders of impure poetry. Robert Penn Warren, co-author of the most influential poetry textbook of the 20th century, Understanding Poetry—which declared the early 20th...
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THEY WANT A HOUSE AND LEGALITY FOR THEIR MURDER
What I want to say is hidden—your mind will not approve, even if I laugh. Even if I love. But stating something breaks the spell, so what should I do? I’m afraid to say what I think. What’s this poem,...
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I WANT TO KNOW IF THERE IS ONE WOMAN
I want to know if there is one woman who refuted the New Criticism. One. I don’t mean walked away or ignored it. Refuted it. I don’t believe there is one. I am so disappointed in women. There was a...
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PURE AND IMPURE, PART TWO
Most readers responded positively to my essay, “Pure and Impure”—others saw it merely as a defense of “genius” rhyming, with the added caveat that “genius” instinctively understands that there are...
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PURE AND IMPURE, PART THREE
Byron—when poetry was sexy and popular and not controlled by the CIA Peter Cherches—in a lively FB thread resulting from Scarriet’s recent controversial poem on women, the New Criticism and the...
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PURE AND IMPURE, PART FOUR
A gang of super geniuses I thank the learned and talented souls who cared enough to joined the recent FB debate on my poem, I WANT TO KNOW IF THERE IS ONE WOMAN—even as they were genuinely puzzled and...
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PURE AND IMPURE, PART FIVE
SO we have established the early 20th century Modernists were “impure”—to the consternation of the Romantic and Victorian “purists.” We have established this truism—with the help of Pulitzer Prize...
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IT’S LOVE!
The controlled anger seasoned with humor of the civilized person intimidates the Caliban stuttering his desire when decisions need to be made. Where is the roof and the plane to be made? It makes the...
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GREAT POEMS SCARRIET FOUND ON FACEBOOK NO.1
Since no one cares about great poetry anymore, or cares to catalog it today—finding the task impossible, like a drunk person unable to keep up with their thoughts—might there be great poems currently...
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PURE AND IMPURE, PART SIX
A necessary text for poets? This is where it greats really weird, so bear with me. By a quirk of fate, a book recently fell into my lap, which I have been perusing, somewhat nostalgically, with great...
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GREAT POEMS SCARRIET FOUND ON FACEBOOK NO.2
This almost needs no comment. The theme and the rhythms are uncanny, beautiful, sublime. I don’t know if it’s a perfect poem, like Shelley’s “Ozymandias.” Shelley presents a singular picture with a...
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THE MODERNIST
Bullying success against sensitive failure. The poet urged himself to kill. “Poets are afraid to harm. But I will.” The sly reversing of the formula took time, but not that much time, at all. Do you...
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