WATERMARK

a poet’s notebook

Established 02004

dreams

May 10, 2004

Dream

I am in some sort of religious community. I am struggling with something that is troubling me. The women ask me, "Have you tried praying?" I confess that I have not. They throw themselves onto the ground, face-down; this is their posture of prayer. I say, "How about if I do it my own way?"… Continue reading

dreams

dream, prayer
April 22, 2004

Dream

exposure to something terrible, toxic the skin hardens, cracks, breaks off in pieces raw, bloody, mucousy intensely painful people hide from each other there is no comfort i write, and write, with a hand that is turning to jelly on some odd substance, like strips of tree-bark not – describing – exactly more – poeming… Continue reading

dreams

dream

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.

dreams

Dream

Dream