Author: Gordon S. Bowman III

Writer, Visual Artist, Blogger

“Disjunctive Poetics“ and Objectivist Poetry

Another update with current reflections on unpoetry from 2022. This results from research into “Disjunctive Poetics: From Gertrude Stein and Louis Zukofsky to Susan Howe” by Peter Quartermain, and several works on the objectivist poets.

This meditation concerns itself with “language as object.” Alienation from the English language, or, in my opinion, any language at all, creates a certain relationship between the poet and the words in his or her poetry. Syntax can become difficult, and meaning, impossible.

Words are used like pigments in an abstract expressionist or cubist painting, in which a bunch of objects are juxtaposed together in a seemingly random (though sometimes, but sometimes not, with carefully chosen placement) and detached manner. Whether it is a flick of the brush, a dumping of a can of paint, or just a very barbaric collection of images that shocks or confuses.

This is unpoetry, folks! It’s the same thing, just done with language. Word as object, in a collage, or maybe a series of nonsensical statements. Absurdity abounds. An alienation from reality that results in an alienation from society, and an alienation in a failed attempt, over and over again, to communicate.

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Home

Floor rug used to be there now it’s laminate and tile cold floor cold on bare feet in slippers sometimes when it’s cold outside and sometimes inside

Too rarely we have a fire in the fireplace but not often she likes the fire to keep warm and to watch it and it’s toasty so sometimes I make it.

Pets we have lots dogs cats and birds they live indoors they stay here sometimes they go outside the yellow lab is a guide dog my wife is visually impaired so the lab goes to work with her every day sometimes we go on trips and the chihuahua comes too

We are going camping soon with her sister and her husband and I think they will bring their dogs too it should be fun I went camping with my family last year we had a good time we ate well. We went to a county fair there were cows and horses there were amusement rides and lots of food there was a car show too and big tractors.

Buried

Stove cook eat necessary live dog doesn’t mice aren’t welcome yard full of grass and dirt trees full of birds and squirrels nothing too strange road is busy sometimes but not often no sidewalks in my neighborhood wires across the yard from poles to houses maybe some are buried

Far Away

There are no words

That come to mind,

Seeing things pass by—

Another day is gone.

My sweet is far away.

I hear her voice,

But she won’t stay.

She has other things to do today.

Many moons will rise and fall

Before she comes back to me.

Many lonely days will pass

Until her face I see.

When she returns,

She will find me

Exceedingly happy,

Joyful, thankfully.

The End

Stretching out

Into open space,

Reaching for…

I know not what.

No, I don’t want to watch

Television.

I’m not interested

In being entertained.

I just want to be stimulated,

Mentally.

A song to sway with,

Would be cool,

But not just

Anything.

My mood is low,

My mind is going

On a journey,

To and fro.

Where I end up

Is any guess.

Where I go

I can’t confess.

Do you really

Want to know?

I am sure

I’ll make up my mind

Eventually.

I’ll choose wisely

And sugar free.

I will coast

Across the water,

Silently.

I’ll find a personal

Rainbow,

Can’t you see?

Yes, that’s it.

The end.

Darkness Falls

Echoes of grief

Creep into dreams.

Clamoring bells

Blast a hole

Into my memories.

Strange sentiments

Hover behind me,

Whispering temptation

To ecstasy.

To bite off a piece

Of reality—

That is my sentence.

To grab ahold

Of something nasty—

So close,

And yet,

Too far away.

To break through

Into another dimension.

To rage into the night!

Oh, so sweet.

So I lose my grip

On the pain

That haunts me.

Another journey.

It all seems

Plain to me.

So I surf right through

The Milky Way,

Cackling an insane laughter.

To be the one and only

Tortured company.

Let it burst into

A broken rip current.

Let it feed

On blood and gore.

Let it be—

Alone.

Can You Doubt It?

Pools of blood

Gathering beneath

The hanging body.

Breath goes out,

But doesn’t come back in.

Skin separated from the bones.

What is the truth?

They’ve washed their hands

Of any responsibility.

But can they wash away the blood?

Nightmares come

To remind the guilty.

Can you grit your teeth

And bare this torture?

Can you escape the horror?

This man was truly

From God.

Those who witnessed,

Cannot deny it.

Those who saw him later—

Walking, talking…

Breathing, eating—

Cannot shake the image

From their memory.

Restored but still wounded.

Put your finger

In my wrists and in my side.

He is alive!!!

Miracles: Yes or No

The central belief that all of Christianity hinges on, that of the resurrection from death of Jesus of Nazareth, is a slippery slope, at least. If one chooses to believe that miracle happened, it isn’t too far a stretch to believe in the feeding of the five thousand, or in the healing of the sight of the blind man, or the other miracles that Jesus was supposed to have performed in the Gospels. If you can believe in the resurrection, everything else is on the table.

And there is no shortage of miracles in the Old Testament either. The production of the stone tablets on the mountain after witnessing a burning bush that is not consumed by the fire, the plagues of Egypt before Pharaoh sets free the Israelites, the parting of the sea for the Israelites as they flee Egypt, the production of mammon in the desert to feed the Israelites, and so many more.

So if one believes in all the wonders of the Old Testament, is it such a stretch to believe in the resurrection? Not really. Or if one believes in the resurrection, why not believe in all the miracles of the Old Testament? It is a leap of faith on both counts, no matter how you look at it.

Can one be a Christian without believing in miracles? Well, if you don’t believe in the resurrection, it’s hard to claim that label. But if you do believe in the resurrection, you have no case against the miracles in the rest of the Bible. One can believe in Jesus’ moral teachings, and so be a follower of Jesus in a way, but some of the things Jesus is quoted saying, and the wonders he is recorded as performing, would have to be overlooked.