WATERMARK

a poet’s notebook

Established 02004

July 14, 2004

Snapshot 14 July 02004

List

Phone calls: Tree pruner.
Dog groomer. Plumber.
(Do you still owe him $?)

Niki. Abigail. Mariah.

Pay the bills you can.
Charge the car battery.

What is that bird —
whooo-eee whooo-eee
& why have you never
learned to recognize
your neighbors’ songs?

Chores: Unload
dishwasher; load
dishwasher. Laundry.
Vacuum. Dust.
That toilet is disgusting.

Phone calls: TV cable.
(Can you afford the DVR?)
Veterinarian — it must be
time for vaccinations.

Feed the sparrows.
Feed the squirrels.

Write a snapshot poem.

Snapshot Poems 2004

Ancestral (Artificial )Intelligence

I do not use AI to write. For me, writing is how I think, and I prefer to do it myself. If/when I post anything here that I suspect or know to be AI generated, I will tell you.

I have changed this from Artificial to Ancestral, after Abi Awomosu @ Substack. This medium was made with human history, human thought. All of it, bright and dark. It is ancestral.

Poems

Please do not assume that I am the speaker/ subject of my poems.

In these times of creative nonfiction and fictionalized memoirs, I think of the poem itself as true fiction: it is most likely not factual, but it must be true.

It is likely to be — it is best if it is — a truth I did not know before I wrote, and may not understand even then.

A poem is my way of discovering (dis-covering) what I feel; sometimes, what I think — but it is not necessarily biographical.

Snapshot 14 July 02004

Leave a Reply Cancel reply