PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

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The spirit of grieving is satisfied, but still I will constrain poetry posting until February 2015 in celebration of a great and prolific writer, Imamu Amiri Baraka. - So much sadness in 2014. Balanced by joys of unimaginable scope and triumphs of impossible sizes. This is the earth and it's inhabitants being human and wonderful and evil and great and invisible. I give you the invisible poems. I just had to go away for a while.
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For 2015, my poetry will be more political. (as if 2012 to 2014 wasn't! Ha!) All poetry is political - carrying with it the emotional status of the writer, their view, their analysis of the world as witnessed and sensed and felt. I used to say ho hum to poetry about inane matters, flowers, birds, my love, suicide, thinking they were unfit vehicles for poetry. I was wrong. Who can disavow the writer's choice of viewpoint. Artifice eventually gives way to the idea that poetry (writing in fact) is a place for thinking larger than the art of the mind instilled from school and probably birth. Hence, I relented and rhymed more this year than in the previous thirty. I have flower poems and bird poems and while not personal - suicide observations in poems.
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The political undercurrents live in whatever a poet composes. It is always there and becomes apparent the more poems you read by that writer. I love it when a poet says they are new to writing and welcome any suggestions. They are new and gentle of spirit and trying something new which is laudable and the purpose of postpoems. When I first came on the site, I was nervous. I was sure of my work, but not sure of how it would be received. To each of you who have read me offerin's and been kind, I am humbled and happy inside. Like receiving an Academy Award, there have been comments on my work that made me blush and say "OMG!". I don't believe he or she said that! I learned from this to praise the work of other writers when I find a gem or a small pebble of art that touches me wondrously.
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I've always commented and commenting is and art as much as creative effort. In this instance less is not more. Poets need encouragement, and criticism limited to PM'S and spelling errors is sufficient. Occasionally, I run into a hard criticism of disappointment or scathing denouncement and remember my tendencies to be harsh and well, aloof. Yeah. It comes with having read for so long and suffered the personalities of poets who can not grasp why you and not them. That hurts when I feel love and joy at other poets. Criticism is destructive to the character. It is also the reason that I do not read poetry in public any more. It is not a competition. It is supposed to be a sharing.
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There is no great prize at the end, unless you luck out and get the Nobel Prize For Literature. It is a process, an evolution into one's approach to perfection that is the prize. Anyway, I published the poems written and withheld. Some of my earlier poems are okay, but most of them are lame and from another mindset entirely. Someone out there in internet land is saying, "Oh, I would love to see those." I'll consider creating a folder entitled "Poems I Disown". Read at your own risk, the management does not accept responsibility for any injury sustained while reading this material.
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Be well, I'm Just Sayin', Yours In Writing...needs an update. How about the sign off of "Lady A". It was a humbling year and I learned so very very much from the wisdom shared by the postpoem writers during it. To grow is important to health. I've grown here. That said, I look forward to a healthy, safe, joyous New Year. At 64 going on 106, to continue breathing is the reward of rewards, the ultimate prize. May you find joy in some aspect of each month ahead. I intend to.
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Lady A
12-09-14
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