M SARKI

A minor writer and amateur photographer M Sarki travels, writes literary reviews, and occasionally creates a poetic artifact. “She wore a tattered wiesenboden the color of a schooper.” ― from Zimble Zamble Zumble

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Why I Hate Poetry

These two old guys drove twelve miles into the city to attend a special poetry reading, hoping to eventually read publicly a few of their own poems in the ordered process of each signing into the listed queue holding court on the official table of the local coffee house. These two gray-haired gentlemen suffered through the chief poet, the headliner, the star, who had earlier sashayed into the coffee house wearing his poet’s garb, looking like the great poet he claimed to his university students to be because he had published books and because, in the course of things, his peers themselves also said he was a great poet. He was there to be seen as the great poet he believed he was and to premiere new poems about his cat. On and on he droned in verse so boring it was hard to tell anymore what the old men had come to partake in and where they thought they might be headed to if they knew. And then, like that, the poet was done. Finished.  And off he went, this handsome poet in his great coat and hat, out the same door he came in, not stopping to listen to any of the waiting novice or amateur readers to come, some of them surely his current students, but the important poet had other more pressing matters to attend to. The eager readers then shuffled up to the same podium one after another until finally, seemingly hours later, the old friends cried uncle and put their own poems away.

I hate poetry simply because of all the poor poetry that stands with others of their ilk as good poetry when in fact it is not. And all the bad poets praise each other’s work and more bad work is propagated because of it. Some of the propagators are teachers, or become teachers, and on and on it goes. When the teacher gets to a kid like me (of course that was many years ago) and tells me how great something being taught is that I inherently already know isn’t, it makes a kid like me not trust adults beginning at a very early age. It is sort of like religion being taught to an atheist as something real and factual. It just doesn’t hold water. But when one comes upon a great poem read correctly you know it in every fiber of your being, teacher or not. The body knows. Something happens to you physically. Sometimes that type of reading has to be taught. You have to be taught how to read a poem. But you can’t teach a bad poem to anyone but a poor reader or a terribly bad listener. All you can do is teach your morals, politics, or gender issues and hope for some sentimental support for what you are saying. Why not instead have an experience unexampled in its feeling? Something novel, new, fascinating, and even a bit disruptive. 

*From Genesis West, number one Interview With Jack Gilbert, conducted by Gordon Lish Poetry Is The Art Of Prejudice, page 86

Jack Gilbert- …But usually my poems are caused by an impulse to communicate some part of my life rather than to please.  I don’t want the reader to finish the poem and say how lovely it was.  I want him to be disturbed. Even miserable.

Gordon Lish- Do you think people who are involved in poetry to further their careers or who make mild poems out of trivial material are dangerous to the reader?

Jack Gilbert- Mostly in being dangerous to themselves and other poets — in that they reduce poetry to something toilet-trained and comfortable…

“…Poetry is almost the only way we can escape from the vicious constipation of moral relativism. Because poetry is the art of prejudice. If prejudice is the inability to discuss a conviction calmly, then poetry is prejudice…(Poetry) doesn’t argue, it demonstrates…Poetry isn’t fair…Poetry is one-sided, and being one-sided, it can say what truth is.”

I think it is pathetic, searching here and there, through the endless articles about poetry and the writing of it, and have to sift through the drivel most of us call good. But I am not in the crowd of “most of us”. They are simply bad. And the conversations about them are bad. It seems to me to always be a community of like-minded citizens who like crappy poetry and the crappy writing of it. Well I don’t. I am insulted by the work and I think it adds more to the general claim that maintains poetry is boring and even stupid.  

*From 19 New American Poets Of The Golden Gate (on believing a poem) page 6

…A lot of Elytus and the others feels like lazy language-mongering. A pretend-surrealism with no need behind it. The mediterranean delight in the dance of the mind over a subject without trying to get anywhere. The subject being merely an occasion for the performance. Like poets giving birth without getting pregnant.

(on less being more) page 7

…One of the special pleasures in poetry for me is accomplishing a lot with the least means possible…and a pleasure in the scantness of means…the use of a few words with utmost effect.

We have far too many learning institutions from which to spread more bad poetry and the writing of it.  Teachers throughout history have taught the same old stuff, boring the hell out of most young minds, and sealing the fate of a vast majority of students never to have seen or heard a very good poem. I know I didn’t. Of course, there are Shakespeare’s words available to us all to use as he did, but with no teacher capable of explaining anything meaningful about his work the typical student could not gain much of anything from his poems except perhaps a headache. Perhaps there is the random teacher who cares so much for the words that the teaching is meaningful. But I never met one until much later in life.  

Poetry was ruined for me from a very early age. I did like nursery rhymes my mother read to me as a young child, but these were later dismissed in school as poetry for younger children and they were not used to teach us how poetry can work. Then we had Dr. Seuss who was also dismissed by most as some eccentric fellow writing silly stuff for young kids. The Doctor actually wrote some very brilliant poems that tend to stretch reality into something unmanageable and therefore unsavory to most palettes.  

*From Wikipedia:  

Though Seuss made a point of not beginning the writing of his stories with a moral in mind, stating that “kids can see a moral coming a mile off”, he was not against writing about issues; he said “there’s an inherent moral in any story” and remarked that he was “subversive as hell”.

“Yertle the Turtle” has variously been described as “autocratic rule overturned” …”a reaction against the fascism of World War II”… and “subversive of authoritarian rule”.

The last lines of “Yertle the Turtle” read: “And turtles, of course … all the turtles are free / As turtles, and maybe, all creatures should be.”… When questioned about why he wrote "maybe” rather than “surely”, Seuss replied that he didn’t want to sound “didactic or like a preacher on a platform”, and that he wanted the reader “to say ‘surely’ in their minds instead of my having to say it.”

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The Future of Our Forests

The trees have become

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Best Books I Read in 2018

Again enormous changes were in store for my partner and I in 2018. We sold our home in Florida, and our cabin in northern Michigan, purchased a custom-made Oliver travel trailer, built a new hurricane-proof structure in the panhandle of Florida, moved all our earthly possessions there, and spent most of the year on the road.  We are officially homeless now and live full-time in less than a hundred square feet of fiberglass RV. We also unexpectedly went through our third hurricane in a row and Michael proved to be the worst. But in light of these traumatic changes, 2018 proved to be another good year for serious reading.

In 2018 I did manage to read my fair share of good books, but again I woefully lacked the number of five-star reads I historically have grown accustomed to procuring.  I restrict my annual year-end report to only those books that garner a five-star ranking from me. This does not mean the lesser seventy or so books I read were not worthy of my time or trouble. I often remember segments from minor works more vividly than those worthy of five-stars. Notable titles and authors whose books I did read that fell just short enough to warrant that coveted ranking included The Story of Shit by Midas Dekkers; The Untethered Soul: The Journey by Michael A. Singer; Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis; Permanent Exhibit by Matthew Vollmer; Hiking with Nietzsche: On Becoming Who You Are by John Kaag; Christopher Hitchens:The Last Interview and Other Conversations by Christopher Hitchens; Why I Came West: A Memoir by Rick Bass; Colter: The True Story of the Best Dog I Ever Had by Rick Bass; and American Witness: The Art and Life of Robert Frank by R.J. Smith.     

The first of my five star classifications for the year went to I Wrote This Book Because I Love You: Essays  by Tim Kreider. Any serious self-examiner who may consider him or herself a discerning reader, will completely miss out on an uplifting and enjoyable reading experience if caught up in ignoring this book because of its title. I ended up reading almost all of Kreider’s books including the collected cartoons. An additional five-star ranking went to his book Why Do They Kill Me? Tim Kreider is an amazingly honest writer and I especially love his essays.

Hunter S. Thompson: The Last Interview: and Other Conversations by Hunter S. Thompson was a purely wonderful and insightful read. I previously thought him insignificant in his last years but this book proves he was anything but. Thompson could see it all coming, and what our country is reeling from now would be no surprise to this great journalist. He spoke the truth and didn’t give a damn what anybody said or thought about it. Hat’s off to Hunter Thompson, a true American hero. Later in the year I also read Freak Kingdom: Hunter S. Thompson's Manic Ten-Year Crusade Against American Fascism by Timothy Denevi.  Due to the character flaws of leaders like Hubert Humphrey and Richard Nixon, Hunter Thompson sought to reveal them for who they were. Many of Thompson’s “truths” and observations in print turned out to be revelatory. The future Thompson predicted was also something that led to his own personal demons destroying what was best in him. Timothy Denevi has performed a great service for the good citizens of these United States. Using Hunter S. Thompson as subject, Denevi has adroitly shown the parallels between Nixon and Trump without ever mentioning the latter’s name. For those of us who want the truth and are willing to hear it, this book has it in spades. This book is a great and important work.  

Even though much of Galen Strawson’s work in  Things That Bother Me: Death, Freedom, the Self, Etc. is beyond my complete understanding I enjoyed it immensely. There was much to ponder. What a surprise for me the last chapter was, as Strawson turned autobiographical and shared his own memory of surviving the sixties and early seventies. Because of our similar age it was easy to feel a kinship with this English philosopher who has good taste in music, and this book inspires me to pursue other Galen Strawson titles.

On the heels of the first two installments titled Autumn and and then Winter, Karl Ove Knausgård’s Spring departed from the initial format and Knausgård ruled again with his bitingly honest and beautiful prose. I lamented this book to end. On every level I felt connected to Karl Ove. The last book in the series titled Summer returned to the initial format and was less than remarkable. But Spring is certainly a five-star read and should not be ignored.

Deborah Levy’s The Cost of Living: A Working Autobiography is dealing with it, the cost of living, and most honorably and with feeling. Similar to a novel, her memoir is ripe with characters and recurring events. It matters little whether Levy is undoing her past life or restarting it. She is living, and suffering, and accomplishing so much on the page. A very adroit and distinguished work.

In late summer I began a vigorous study of the poet, performer, monk, and songwriter Leonard Cohen who died in late 2016. What hooked me was Eric Lerner’s memoir Matters of Vital Interest: A Forty-Year Friendship with Leonard Cohen. One of the most, if not the most, uplifting and heartbreaking memoirs ever written. Any attempt at description or explanation would fail to capture the essence and love captured between the pages of this wondrous book. A forty-year friendship and search for answers that resulted in a life bursting with meaning. Sad to know that Leonard Cohen is gone, but Eric Lerner, in his own perfect way, brings him back by adding more beautiful words to spiritual Cohen’s musical gift to all of us. In December I finished Leonard Cohen on Leonard Cohen: Interviews and Encounters by Jeff Burger which gave me an entire lifetime of revelations concerning Cohen’s history of beliefs and insights regarding the world he had created for himself. A fascinating and intimate look into the mind of Leonard Cohen.

To all my friends, please enjoy a happy and safe holiday. If you are so inclined to have a look we have begun a new topical platform for literary criticism, poetry, fiction, memoir, photography, nude art, self-realization, ageism, and travel titled after our long-running literary concerns called the Rogue Literary Society.  Please click on https://rogueliterarysociety.com

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Save The Blogs!

Okay, folks. So. Tumblr’s jumped the shark in a big way, and I’m not even just talking about indiscriminately blocking all “adult” content on a platform that IS, in fact, primarily 18+.

Many blogs, like the wonderful @blackkatmagic , that are not especially NSFW have vanished.

(And I for one LIKE being able to go to curated porn blogs run by actual people and have a chance of finding stuff to my taste, it was one of the things that kept me on this hellsite, but that’s another issue entirely.)

I know lots of people are talking about migrating, but none of us are sure to where yet. Pillowfort seems to be an option, some people are talking about Twitter. But for now, it’s a mess, and even if we knew where we were going, it’s often a huge process, and a lot of us have stuff on tumblr that ONLY exists there. One possible quick solution to save your blogs, both NSFW and personal, is to import it to WordPress. I found this solution through from frantic googling on how to save an entire blog, text posts an all. There are several apps for downloading all the pictures from a tumblr, (Plently for Windows, but only a few paid ones for mac, of which Tumbelog Picture Downloader is working for me so far) but this is the only solution I’ve seen so far that allows you to save EVERYTHING. I downloaded my NSFW blog in like 10 min. My regular blog, which is significantly larger, is in the process of importing, but I don’t anticipate any problems. I will, of course, update you if I have any.  

This tutorial I found worked really easily. http://quickguide (.) tumblr (.) com/post/39780378703/backing-up-your-tumblr-blog-to-wordpress

I put parenthesis around the .’s like we’re back in FF-Hell, just in case tumblr’s new thing about outgoing links kicks in. You know what to do.  To break it down, just in case:

 Sign up for a WordPress.com account at wordpress (.) com/start You’ll have to create an account, with your email, a username, and a password. They should send you a confirmation email immediately, check it, activate it, and you’re good to go. On the site, it will ask you for a site name. That page asks you a bunch of other information too, but you only have to fill out the site name.

Then you have to give your site a URL. If you’re lucky, your tumblr URL is still available, if not you’ll have to come up with another one, sorry.

It will tell you if that option is still available for free.

Then it will ask you to pick a plan. Free is really good enough, I swear.

Now you’re set up! You can import your tumblr! The only differences from the linked tutorial are that the Import button is now on the first level menu, not in tools.

Hit Import, then you have to follow the link for “other importers”  at the bottom, to find the option for Tumblr.

Then you’ll have to sign in with tumblr, using your normal tumblr credentials. You’ll be redirected there automatically. You’ll have to allow Wordpress permissions on your blog.

Then your blogs, including all your sideblogs, will show up in wordpress.

Hit import, wait a WHILE depending on the size of your blog, and you’re done!

ALSO!!

I made my NSFW blog private for now, since I don’t know WP’s policy on NSFW.

This means that to access it, someone has to have an account and request access. But hey, part of our problem on this hellsite has been people going places they aren’t wanted, so I don’t personally see this as a bad thing. They can send a request from the landing site on your blog, you get an email, click a link in the email, and PRESTO, they have access. To make it private, go to Settings > Reading > Site Visibility. Go back and check, it took me changing the setting twice for it to actually stick. tl;dr, you can import your entire blog to wordpress in just a few steps.  I’m going to tag the hell out of this, in no particular order. PLEASE reblog this and spread the word so people know it’s an option. If you’re having trouble, PM me, and I’m happy to help.

@gallusrostromegalus @kaciart @lena221bee @deadcatwithaflamethrower

@norcumi @deandraws @morn-art, @thebisexualmandalorian @kristsune @marloviandevil @punsbulletsandpointythings @protagonistically @cris-art @elfda @fish-ghost @godtierwonder @heartslogos @haekass @iesika @incogneat-oh @itispossibleihaveissues @jaegervega @jhaernyl @the-last-hair-bender @kleine-aster @latenightcornerstore @lectorel @medievalpoc @mgnemesi @me-ya-ri @myurbandream @peskylilcritter @cywscross ,@cheshiresense @varevare @victoriousscarf @whatsmeantobe @swpromptsandasks @gabriel4sam @stonefreeak @brighteyedbadwolf @pumpkin-lith @puzzleshipper @suzukiblu @myurbandream @lacefedora @jademerien

There are a whole bunch more, but that’s a start. Please reblog the hell out of this, so people are aware of this one simple option.

[gallusrostromegalus]

For people asking how to backup thier blog

[submissiveinclination]

Sharing as a PSA.

[greyhairedcanuck]

Boosting!

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Helpful and appreciated.

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Leonard Cohen on Leonard Cohen: Interviews and Encounters (Musicians in Their Own Words) by Jeff Burger

Leonard Cohen on Leonard Cohen: Interviews and Encounters (Musicians in Their Own Words) by Jeff Burger Kindle Edition, 624 pages Published April 1st 2014 by Chicago Review Press (first published January 1st 2014) ASIN: B00IQY2PQO

What follows are notes taken while reading this book and are far superior than anything I might have to add in praise or criticism. You want to know what makes Cohen tick?

...It’s not that a man chooses the gods that he worships—it’s the gods who choose him.

...Professionalism is the enemy of creativity and invention.

...The thing that people are interested in doing now is blowing their heads off and that’s why the writing of schizophrenics like myself will be important.

...Yeah, performing. I mean you can really be humiliated. There are other rewards and prizes that go with it—you can come out with a sense of glory, girls might fall in love with you, they might be paying you very well. All the possibilities of corruption and material gain and self-congratulation are present—but also at the same time there is this continual threat and presence of your own disgrace.

...I mean to say there’s no program that I’ve embraced. I think I have had some programs in the past that I’ve grasped at. I get two or three of ’em a day, but I just think that trying to get through is my program.

...a kind of extremely sensitive reactor..

...I think that what we call the spirit or spirituality is the most intense form of the practical.

…(a) writer is more confused, more bewildered, than other people who aren’t writers. One of the absolute qualifications for a writer is not knowing his arse from his elbow.

...take these images from that experience and graft them on this world where huge women smile down from these billboards and everybody knows that the thing is rotten.

...certain native American tribes refused to accept the mirror. The reason was, they said, that your face is for others to look at.

...The voices in my head, they don’t care what I do, they just want to argue the matter through and through.

...Love is the foundation of democracy, but it’s very important for people to have a certain kind of education. Which we’re not getting. Democracy affirms the equality of phenomena. It affirms the equality of the white and the black, and the poor and the rich. It’s filled with affirmations, with validations for the fragment of society, but unless the fragments of society can experience themselves as a something other than the fragments, then democracy will fail.

...I suppose they are spontaneous and visceral if you are a spontaneous and visceral kind of chap. I’m not. I’m very formal, uptight, and agonized most of the time.

...But this kind of exclusivity! A confident people is not exclusive. A great religion affirms other religions. A great culture affirms other cultures. A great nation affirms other nations. A great individual affirms other individuals, validates the being-ness of others and the vitality...

..So lest anybody think that the making of anything is some kind of glamorous activity involved with bricks that are already baked it’s not at all that way. You’re dealing with the mud and the water. Those are the ingredients of anything that is beautiful— chaos and desolation...

...Nobody can follow you where you’ve got to go to do good work...Nobody can follow you there and nobody wants to come and friends drop away and people turn aside and you can’t expect anybody to go the distance with you [pause] except for maybe one person in your life. Maybe one person can do it. One intimate soul…

...the greatest help you can get from anything is to find out that it doesn’t work. Because nothing works. Nothing in this human realm is meant to work.

...It is offered at all times, at all moments, and we create a fictional barrier, we succumb to a fictional disease, and we buy into a fictional separation from the thing we want the most, which is a sense of ourselves and a sense of being at home with ourselves.

...we don’t need a big house because I know now that riches and big houses and all those things mean nothing. I know that the only thing that counts is to express love and respect and to bend your knee before the object of your love so that she can bend her knee to you. I know that now. I didn’t know then.

...good work is produced in spite of suffering and as a response, as a victory over suffering.

...Lighten up—that’s what enlightenment means: that you’ve lightened up.

...I’ve been lucky. Kids come to me and ask me for advice. Usually I say I’ve got good advice but it’s one word: duck!

...I think the woman chooses. It’s been told to me that the woman chooses, and she decides within seconds of meeting the man whether or not she’s going to give herself to him. In any case, I think in most cases the woman is running the show in these matters, and I’m happy to let them have it.

[nomadreignrv]

The Tumblr Worm Turns

…Lighten up—that’s what enlightenment means: that you’ve lightened up.__Leonard Cohen

It appears Tumblr has caved in to the likes of the Conservative Christian Right. Of course, it is their prerogative to run their platform any way they choose.  But the results will be a milk toast. Many artists, such as Leonard Cohen, engage nudity, sex, infidelity, and a range of other connecting topics into their compositions.  In fact, much of what Leonard Cohen produced in song and drawings would be restricted on Tumblr beginning 17 December 2018. That is a shame. This site used to be rich in choices for all of us. Now the moral police have decided on their own fascist brand of exclusivity. Anyone know of a different platform that encourages free expression and high art?

[nomadreignrv]

Carmel by the Sea

Thanksgiving 2018 was spent in this seaside town. The streets are a bit steep for an oldster with bad legs. But the views are astounding. The homes are interesting and well-maintained. Being wealthy is one requirement for keeping any kind of home here. The town itself is for tourists. Not exactly my cup of tea.

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Thanksgiving Holiday Time-out

Due to the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday we’ll be off visiting family for the next two weeks, flying and hitching a ride with others. But, with a little luck, we shall be back! Thanks again for coming by.

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Get a Good Helmet

…I’ve been lucky. Kids come to me and ask me for advice. Usually I say I’ve got good advice but it’s one word: duck!__Leonard Cohen