The Poetic Story Line

Diggendicht was an extension of transcendentalism for me after a time-"beauty rests content with itself" was how Goethe put it. I am still interested in the poetic story line. The art of Rilke's in-seeing as giving the object a consciousness of its own. My early poems were greatly influenced by the dialecticism of William Blake and the visionary surrealism of Jim Morrison. The later poems merge elements of the French symbolists, Emersonian Transcendentalism and the ancient oriental aesthetic of Li Ho and Wei Tai. I paint poems and found a kind of home there> My paintings have always been rather cartoon like and fantastically oriented, a rendering of a dream if you will- I always thought (about realist art) that if you wanted a photograph then why not take a snapshot with a camera?  

credits

2015

Rimbaud’s Illuminations

I remember discovering Arthur Rimbaud’s Illuminations around 1994 or so and thinking that those poems were the pinnacle of his artistic expression and perhaps poetry itself in terms of subject matter and beauty. I soon set out to write The River of Swans, Advent (Omega) and much later Vandalia (the continuation of the River of Swans) , which all utilized the (open and suggestive) prose poem form that Rimbaud employs so well throughout Illuminations. 

9/19/2024

Midnight Poems 1994-95

 https://sites.google.com/view/peod-archive/first-draft-manuscripts?authuser=0

The Poetic Vocation

I always thought the poetic vocation was to be

as Hesse said "the bearer of human longing" and 

to convey Divine mystery. I think about the "ordinary extraordinary"

as Goethe put it as well that surrounds us all of the time.

The Poet's Year @ https://tbyron.livejournal.com/496630.html

has always given great insight since 1990 or so.

8/5/2024

William Blake

Early on @ Virginia Tech I discovered William Blake and his remarkable relief etchings (a method taught to him by the ghost of his own Brother) and his combining poetry and art changed the way I approached my own work forever. @ https://www.blakearchive.org/

Language of Light

My poetry, music and art have always been a place for me of supernatural communion between the divine and earthly realms.The liberation of the ordinary is finding the eternal in the moment now-there is a sacred space of connection which transcends time itself and is born through spontaneity and my work has been to attempt to bring forth this language of light.
Thank you for sharing my "Heartsongs”. 

Stopping By A Woods On A Snowy Evening by Robert Frost & Illustrated by Susan Jeffers

This is my Father’s favorite poem, and he read it out loud to my Sister and I many times on cold Virginia Winter nights. It is a visionary and beautiful work, full of transcendental images and mystery that Frost’s conveys quite beautifully and simply. This poem and the wonderful illustrations of this book (along with "The Pasture” by Frost) were the first multimedia experiences I had with poetry as well (long before William Blake and Jim Morrison in College). The artwork is an amazing compliment to the poetry and makes story time a joy. Frost’s "The Pasture” was also a  poem performed by Cadets in the Virginia Tech Glee club that I discovered in my Father’s old record collection with him singing on it and these works opened the door of possibility for me in terms of what poetry could be. When I found this book again I sent it to my Dad, it was a gift he gave me and my Sister long ago that changed my life forever.

https://www.livejournal.com/away?to=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FStopping-Woods-Snowy-Evening-Robert%2Fdp%2F0525467343