WATERMARK

a poet’s notebook

Established 02004

Judd Polivka

December 1, 2005

World AIDS Day

Sunset on the Sangre de Cristo Mountainsfor Judd Polivka 1940-1992 In afternoon, sun becomes more precious, spare near evening, as it falls toward that spot, there on the mountain. That far spot, where trees thin and shale shows through. You can see the shape of the world there at the curving edge of sky. … Continue reading

Current Affairs, Family, Poems

AIDS, Judd Polivka, World AIDS Day
June 10, 2004

Richard and Judd

Today, at the market, a middle-aged couple, squeezing tomatoes. They remind me of you, one gaunt, grey, with sharp cheekbones; the other large and reddish. I remember you exiting the plane at the Missoula airport, both in huge fur coats, New York queers and proud of it. Christmas, and you two glittered and grinned brighter… Continue reading

Poems

death, grief, Judd Polivka, loss, poem, poetry, richard brogan, syllabic

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.

Judd Polivka

World AIDS Day

Richard and Judd