Rosemary Nissen-Wade: Aussie poet and teacher of metaphysics – a personal view
My bestie nicknamed me SnakyPoet on her blog, and I liked it. (It began as
'the poet of the serpentine Northern Rivers' and became more and more abbreviated.)
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Wednesday, June 01, 2011

Gil Scott-Heron, Voice of Black Culture, Dies at 62

I didn't know this poet or his work, but I like what my friend Thom Woodruff (aka Thom the World Poet and various other pen-names) writes, for this occasion but more widely applicable:

WHEN A POET DIES
for a short time,every one remembers his/her  lines
They get quoted in bylines(never the full poem)
A picture flashes of them (usually @the height of their fame
Never a picture of them as they lay dying
Never in their last Fat Elvis days
A byline may allude to drugs and sex and children
but it is the poem that will live on-
thin and ruthless,true as spear and fire
If the line is taut and stripped and bare
Naked as newborn and barking @the moon
If each word fits like the coat of your skin
You will wear this poem.You will remember her/him
That is where the point resides-deep inside the flesh of mind
like St Sebastians arrows making martydom
The arrow of truth -a burning poem.

2 comments:

  1. excellent piece. I like your use of language, it is with such intent and consciousness. Well met

    Luke

    ReplyDelete
  2. Luke, I have Thom's permission to post his poems as I see fit. Obviously, I liked this one too! He wouldn't automatically see your comment, but I'll pass it on to him.

    ReplyDelete

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