WATERMARK

a poet’s notebook

Established 02004

July 2005

July 15, 2005

Smart Cats

Last week we reviewed the evidence that cats are smarter than dogs. But of course, there is smart: smart (smärt) adj. smart·er, smart·est Characterized by sharp quick thought; bright. See Synonyms at intelligent. Amusingly clever; witty: a smart quip; a lively, smart conversation. Canny and shrewd in dealings with others: a smart negotiator. and then… Continue reading

Friday Cat Blogging 4

cat, dancing cat, Friday Cat Blogging, jumping cat, kittycat
July 14, 2005

This world . . .

This world of dew is only a world of dewAnd yet… —Issa Continue reading

Photos 2005

haiku, Issa, photograph
July 13, 2005

Snapshot 13 July 02005

I wake in pain, enter this day in pain. Young osprey circle above the swallows. A man in the park paces under the trees, swinging a metal detector. The tables have been moved together into one open space; a herd of picnic tables, green on the green grass. Heat. Bees hum in the foxglove. This… Continue reading

Photos 2005, Snapshot Poems 2005
July 12, 2005

Another

I woke this morning to a note from Erin, that her beloved sister Wendy died this weekend while vacationing in Mexico. Wendy was thirty years old. Erin has written about this here. Life is seeming particularly cruel these past weeks; my small garden is not large enough to contain it, and far too small to… Continue reading

Photos 2005, Poets

death, Erin Noteboom, Wendy Ewell
July 11, 2005

hot afternoon

Continue reading

Photos 2005

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.

July 2005

Smart Cats

This world . . .

Snapshot 13 July 02005

Another

hot afternoon