WATERMARK

a poet’s notebook

Established 02004

prayer

May 31, 2004

Prayer

If you are there, show me. The white rose unfolds. Speak to me, I am begging. Raven opens his black beak. Were you ever here? I read the morning paper: another bomb in Baghdad. Last night, sleep never came. Where is the evidence? Here, smoke from burning mountains smothers our view. I am lost. I… Continue reading

Poems

poem, poetry, prayer, Snapshot Poem
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

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.

prayer

Prayer

Dream