WATERMARK

a poet’s notebook

Established 02004

#amwriting

April 4, 2017

The Shoelaces of Love

Respectable black, or sporty white? The black with red racing stripes? Maybe. Yellow? Cheerful, but a bit naive. Butterflies, hearts, flowers? Not my thing. The old ones were slightly frayed, but functional, until the dog peed on them. Baby blue? Too sweet. Navy blue? Too staid. Here are some… Continue reading

Poem-a-Day

#amwriting, #NationalPoetryMonth, #poemaday
April 2, 2017

Harvest

In preparation for the lean season, I gather my memories. Some ripe and sweet as childhood, others in neglected, unwatered corners, withered and stone-hard. Some offer themselves freely, some hide in thistles and thorns. This basket grows heavy. Winter is coming. But not today. Continue reading

Poem-a-Day

#amwriting, National Poetry Month, poem, poetry

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.

#amwriting

The Shoelaces of Love

Harvest