WATERMARK

a poet’s notebook

Established 02004

found poem

January 11, 2006

Snapshot 11 January 02006

[Excerpts from U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Judge Samuel Alito’s Nomination to the Supreme Court: Judge Alito’s opening statement] I am humbled I’m very thankful greathonor for me and I appreciate allcourtesies extended "How in the world did I get here?" I am whoI am, in the first place storiesof their lives My father… Continue reading

Snapshot Poems 2006

Alito, found poem, poem, poetry
May 2, 2004

mango (a found poem)

place (slender) mango slice exposing ends pare away (exquisite) remaining bits of skin slice (perfumed) flesh make two rounded shapes without peeling slice (precious) close to the pit on both sides cutting (abundance) cubes of mango expose flesh without biting (sweetness) skin bend (tongues) fruit backward pushing up under make (shining) bow mango still attached… Continue reading

Found/Collage, Poems

collage poem, found poem, mango, poem, poetry
February 1, 2004

the closing

circles caused by changing parallels, a different balance, in light-skinned women, a range between (her pelvis must reach) an idea of round lawn. walk beneath allowed lilacs, glans of penis, bulb of vestibule (four columnar trees.) intricate … Continue reading

Found/Collage, Poems

collage poem, found poem, 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.

found poem

Snapshot 11 January 02006

mango (a found poem)

the closing