Posts Tagged ‘poetry’

Altered States in Poetic Dreams

There is one
difference
in my use
of hypnotic
patterning
in poetry...

I do not write
a poem
with one reader
or listener
in mind.

I write
those things
that have
altered
my consciousness
in the most
intense
ways.

So, the question
is not
can you be
hypnotized,
the question is
can I find
the language
patterns
that will
be most effective
in altering
your
consciousness.

By Bruce Whealton
June 24, 2009

Share on Facebook

Here’s a revised poem, that I wrote a few years back, called “Honest Confessions.” I end this latest revision with the lines, “I am a poem/ revised too many times.

Honest Confessions

I've been explaining myself
over and over and again,
to you, my sister,
my brother -

My reader -
confessing some of my deepest secrets.

I left a nice home...
Yet I have nothing against
the beaches I left,
with those hypnotic waves

that kept me still       and steady
how much better to nurture a poet
than any other place.

Why leave or move to anywhere?
Is there anything
about a place
that defines what a
poet becomes?

Perhaps, it's through
the persons we meet
that we become
who we are.

Psychiatrist, Dr. R. D. Laing explains that I
am defined by
my social interactions.
I am a poem
revised too many times.

By Bruce Whealton -
revised June 5, 2009

Share on Facebook