[stylist] Poem -

Tue Nov 4 19:04:41 UTC 2014

Bill

How amazing that a dream has stayed with you this long.

The idea that we can reach across the void and build bridges to others of good will, be they dream bridges or something more substantial" is one thing I find fetching about the whole science fiction thing.

One thing interesting was that for all the alien beings' strangeness, they were just folk "not saints" just good people.

I really did enjoy it, and now I can't get your dream out of my head.

Shawn

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of William L Houts via stylist
Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2014 1:01 PM
To: Lynda Lambert; Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: Re: [stylist] Poem -

Hi Linda,

Thanks so much for your thoughtful response to my poem, "Alien". I had that dream about eight years or so ago and it's haunted me all that time, as you can see.  Even now, I have the sense that I was granted a peek into the lifeways of some whole other kind of people.  They were so strange, a child might have screamed, but they were so peaceful, it was a great pleasure to visit them, whehter or not they were merely the figments of a dream.  Again, thanks so much for your comments.

--Bill

On 11/4/2014 3:17 AM, Lynda Lambert wrote:
> Hi Bill,
> I enjoyed reading your poem this morning as I sat in the dark room 
> around 5 am. I think the time of day and the aloneness of the pre-dawn 
> reading of it was just the perfect time to encounter this poem. The 
> others in the house this morning are fast asleep, it is just me and 
> the cats here, moving around in the dream of my own reality.
> It gives me the sense of looking into a surreal painting. You 
> "painted" images such as would be encountered in a surreal landscape 
> painting. From the first words at the beginning of the poem, I had 
> entered into that world as you took me through your experience layer 
> by layer.
>
> It begins "in the dream," which is the perfect entrance into this 
> surreal world. You have given us a place to enter into your own dream 
> by positioning yourself (the personna of the poem) in a "canyon of red 
> and earthlike rock." I envisioned standing in Colorado at Red Rocks, 
> or a similar place on earth. Yet, at the same time, you removed my 
> comfort of being in a familiar place when you pair that thought with 
> the reality that we are very far removed from what we are seeing and 
> experiencing as you move forward taking us into your world.
> There is a strong sense of voyeurism and we continue to watch from 
> that distance in both place and time. Actually, we have entered into 
> timelessness, I felt.
> The place you describe is both other-worldly yet in some ways quite 
> familiar.  And, I liked the matter-of-fact "voice" as the poet 
> describes the dream/reality of the metaphysical space.
>
> I like this poem very much, Bill. You paced it perfectly and have 
> given it breath and livingness.  And, you left me with imagery I will 
> not soon forget and a question that I can continue to think about as I 
> begin this day in November.
> You pose the question at the perfect place in this poem. And, it is a 
> deep philosophical musing which I liked very much. I think your timing 
> is just perfect in this poem. And, I am left with the continuing 
> thought , "Yet maybe the cosmos dreams us to each other..." as my day 
> begins.
>
> I look back once again to the title again and again, "Alien." Just 
> what is an alien?  I think of what this word means and I continue 
> meditating on the thought of who is the "alien!"
>
> I am not sure what you meant in your prelude to the poem when you said 
> it is "less literary." Just the fact that it is a poem  (an excellent 
> one, at that) gives it literary clothing.  It is the work of a poet 
> with concerns and something to say that is meaningful and timely.
> I could go on, but I think this poem holds  the very essence of what 
> "literary"  means, Bill.  No apologies please, for having a thoughful 
> mind and an imaginative spirit in your writing.
>
> Lynda McKinney Lambert
>
> -----Original Message----- From: William L Houts via stylist
> Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2014 2:28 AM
> To: Writer's Division Mailing List
> Subject: [stylist] Poem -
>
> HI Bards and Poets,
>
> Been away for some time, I guess.  Finally surfacing after solving 
> some unusual access problems.  Anyway, hope all here are well and 
> productive, assuming you want to be.
>
> As for me, the past few months have been extremely productive. Below 
> is one of my favorites.  It's gone through some revision since I wrote 
> it this summer, and I think this is the vest version so far.  Also, my 
> work over the summer has, by design, been aimed at being somewhat less 
> "literary" in my approach. Comments welcome, as always.
>
>
> --Bill
>
>
>
>
> ---
>
>
>
>
> *Alien*
>
> In the dream, I stood at an
>
> uncountable remove, in some canyon
>
> of red and earthlike rock.
>
> Before me, at twelve unblurred feet
>
> were a couple.They were
>
> not remotely human, and yet
>
> I sensed their minds or something deeper.
>
> they'd neither hands nor heads, and the female
>
> in her had a kind of hollow
>
> into which her mate would go, a pen or roost.
>
> They were boxlike, somehow, with short fur.
>
> And here's the great reveal:
>
> they knew I was there, and didn't mind.
>
> They were peaceful and decent in the most ordinary way:
>
> not saints, yet sacred, earnest folk,
>
> bearing gravity's grip without complaint.
>
> I might go or remain, they seemed to say,
>
> and all would be well. They were light years
>
> away, I think, and suppose they were real enough,
>
> convincing as thunder or suns.
>
> How could you know such things, you say.Poetry's fine,
>
> but we dwell on a rock among rocks
>
> in the black unhomely cold.
>
> Yet maybe the cosmos dreams us to each other
>
> I venture, across the stellar gulfs
>
> that we might abide for dreaming seconds
>
> in the presence of friends both strange
>
> and utterly dear; neighbors or kin like us:
>
> adrift on rocklike rafts in a dark and motherlike sea.
>
>
> WLH
> 8/14
>
>
>
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-- 

"Oh, Sophie!  Whyfore have you eated all de cheeldren?"

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