In my mind, poetry is not meant to be a destructive force field nor a hazardous competition nor a playing field role reversal of right versus wrong.
I feel like some people in poetry land almost want to force other people in poetry land to pick a side and announce the side they picked and why.
I don't want to pick a side; I want to pick a poem.
I don't feel the need to unfriend someone, completely distance myself from them, and cut them down just because we're not on the exact same side - or semi-publicly slam somebody just because I disagree with parts of them - or lay out exactly how I feel about another person so that other people can narrow down which side I am or am not in support of.
If anyone wants to know how I feel about someone or something, then they can feel free to ask me one-on-one and I will probably openly respond - but I'm probably not going to get involved in some group attack that combines some legitimate points with a bunch of people making fun of a bunch of other people.
Sometimes it starts to feel like some sort of aggrandized agenda, but I'm not even sure where it's heading. To destroy people you disagree with? To destroy people you hate? To destroy people who hate you? To destroy people before they destroy you?
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I've had people try to control me before and I didn't like it at all. I will try my best to be myself AND listen to others. I will try my best to stay in control of myself without trying to control anyone else.
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I try to expel my own negativity (and all kinds of other feelings too) via creating my own poetry and art. Not by attacking other poets and artists or anyone else.
Here is a video of me reading some of my poetry this past May (part of the Take the Knight Off poetry reading in Canton, Ohio).
I just happened to encounter the video yesterday and thought I would share it today.
(from Juliet Cook - individual human being, poet, and Blood Pudding Press creature)
Jennifer
E. Hudgens' photo of "A Red Witch, Every Which Way" by j/j hastain
and Juliet Cook (Hysterical Books, 2016), nestled in between other poetry
books.
"Burning thru canyons of news feed, a vortex on each pallid tongue
until a percolator explodes and then magma seeps out
its mottled gold gorging on the horizon, gnawed ruptures
in the sprawl's dull chill, because we can't tell
the difference between hot and cold eruptions and it keeps burning..."
Three collaborative poems by Juliet Cook and Michael Bernstein in the wonderful Rag Queen Periodical.
"His wide palms made it easy to hold his prey - I tried to climb out of the hole again - to dig my way out of losing - even background checks are shot full of holes - dripping from a corroded arrowhead - Was this what hell feels like - like blackened goblets - in red dawn - in love with sweetness and gore - turning comatose blue - I start to black out again - it's a side-effect of spirits - the shadows of trees moving back and forth - my head holds my predator's wisdom - We drag our dreams - the radio bleeds a sobbing tune -fluid and bloody - mouth jolts open, as if forced from within."
Four collaborative poems by j/j hastain and Juliet Cook are appearing in Rag Queen AND bearing mention of Twin Peaks!!!!!!
"We love Twin Peaks at Rag Queen, so in honor of the series finale, we'll be posting works that center, in some way, on themes of duplicity all throughout the week!
Today, we have four collaborative poems by one of our favorite frequent contributors, Juliet Cook and new contributor JJ Hastain!"
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