[stylist] Poem - "Blake" - First Draft

[William L Houts]

HI Jackie,

Thanks so much for your gracious comments.  Yes, I admire William Blake 
for his many accomplishments, and for my sense of him as someone who 
truly became himself, spiritually and artistically.  I understand that 
he was rather a strange bird to his contemporaries and so I easily 
relate to him on that level, ha.

I use "blinks" as a salutation simply because I heard it's an informal 
slang for blind people, without any derogatory sense attached to it.  
But if it bothers you or anyone else, I'll immediately look for a 
different greeting.  No sense in ruffling feathers on an otherwise 
congenial list.

Congratulations are in order to you for recognizing the quote from the 
Saki short story.  It's one of his more famous tales, of course, but 
people don't read so much Saki anymore, taken as they are with watching 
"House of Cards", "Criminal Minds" and such.  I can't say that I have 
any particular reason for using it as a quote other than that "Sredni 
Vashtar" s one of my favorite short stories.

Again, thanks so  much for taking the time to comment on a bit of work 
I'm feeling pretty good about right now.  I've  had the first two lines 
or so in mind for the better part of a year and finally settled down to 
discover what poem they might belong to a few days ago; I'm somewhat 
relieved to have finally found the right home for it, if you know what I 
mean.  I'm so glad that it does resonate with you and our Mr. Chris.

--Bill








On 6/4/2014 8:53 PM, Jackie Williams wrote:
> Bill,
> Before I comment on your poem which  is  a marvelous Ars Poetica, I have
> spent inordinate time googling your comment at the end. The quote comes from
> a song, in which the favor is "Kill." I cannot help wondering why you picked
> this quotation. I realize Shredni Vashti's God was a polecat/ferret that
> killed hens among many other evil acts. He asked that one favor, "Kill."
> Your poems provide an education in so many things. William Blake could take
> several years of study to appreciate his many talents, accomplishments,
> other than poetry, and his revolutionary and dissonant character. I have
> just waded through Dante's Inferno, and never knew that William Blake had
> made his illustrations so much a part of some of the cantos.
> To your poem. It is filled with beautiful lines and thoughts and near
> metaphors, at the same time, some with turbulence. The internal rhyme holds
> it all together. I have not read William Blake's poetry, but you must have
> patterned this poem after his style.
> I love the challenges you give us with your unusual words, quotes, and
> references. You are so prolific that if we were to critique every poem in
> depth, we would find ourselves well-educated poets with  a larger
> vocabulary.
> Why do you address us all as "blinks?" Are the blind known for blinking more
> than sighted persons?
>
> Jackie Lee
>
> Time is the school in which we learn.
> Time is the fire in which we burn.
> Delmore Schwartz	
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of William L
> Houts via stylist
> Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2014 1:25 PM
> To: Writer's Division Mailing List
> Subject: [stylist] Poem - "Blake" - First Draft
>
>
>
>
> HI Poets, Novelists and Severe-Eyed Critics:
>
> Here's a poem I wrote the day before yesterday.  It's basically a poem
> about being a poet, with nods to our illustrious forebear, William
> Blake.  There's lots of literary stuff in this one, but I think it
> should be fairly easy to read.
>
>
> --Bill
>
>
> ---
>
> Marooned on the isle  of 3am,
>
> counting my litter of skullborn runts,
>
> once I could win with these infant hounds;
>
> now I'm not so gall as to call them gold.
>
> My hoard is heaped with sighs, my eye with woe.
>
> O for Blake to show, that soul of rhyme,
>
> that captain cool and strange;
>
> O for him to come ashore and put me straight,
>
> to say:"From one Bill to the next, your text
>
> is wild with thrashing whales, your rhyme
>
> beguiles, and sonnets sail for isles as rare
>
> as dreaming X." My eyes would go from glum
>
> to glee, and set my hand to setting down
>
> some fervent verse, some sonnet skullblaze free:
>
> as high as swans,as bread as Easter's rising.
>
>
>
>
> copyright William L. houts 2014
> United States of America
> All rights Reserved
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-- 

"Do one thing for me, Sredni Vashtar!"

           --Saki