The Tangled Branch Discussion Forums

Phil -- there is a ton of useful stuff at PFFA, as well as at [Poetry] Magnum Opus.  I intend to repost that wonderful essay on the resources board - in fact maybe we need to segregate the how-to stuff to make it more easily accessible.  Again, thanks for flagging this.

T

Thumbs up.
 

Thanks for the comments, Phil.

Indar - you found the weak line.  Window sill is an upgrade.  With my green tomatoes, I spread them on brown paper (from bags) and scatter a few bananas amongst.  But that is not so poetic. 

T

~      Late Tomatoes   Of late in garden’s far corner patient in rows and lines on stems hundreds of late summer’s tomatoes hard working buggers all.  Now still green when fall’s first freeze shuts down life’s flow – no more  wicking through stalks the nectar  of life, no more heat from the sun.   W...

A somber progression, this, Mark.  I recall some of this from NaPo and you have been busy in the smithy's shop hammering these lines together.  I get lost at the close when the voice from the clouds is heard.  I think I hold the thread, hear the drumbeat until then.  How satisfied are you with the c...

Indar this is such a heartrending piece.  The N speaks matter of factly, as there is no alternative, nothing else left.  I think it is therapeutic to speak directly to the departed, and your Narrator so effectively gets to the heart of it all.  The notion of last promises -- wow.

T

    Thoughtful, meditative piece.  Is there more than the avoidance of catastrophe, is life more than navigating the interstices between that which would destroy us?   This poem doesn’t have your usual ladder feel to it, – inevitable rung after inevitable rung. How would S.1 work as the closing stan...

New sprouts in the turnip patch!! 

A frowning death downs the up quarks, 
ups the down quarks, flushes magnetic infinity 
from the flux, finally, unpacks coils in the engine 
of your stealth cycle, cycling into a heavy sky.

I'm getting too old for this.

And yes, welcome back Mark. 

The video and background were illuminating.  But even for readers without the additional information, there is still a lot to be gotten from the poem.   Getting and holding a cow’s attention will usually bring her physically as well - cowbells, cow calls, etc.  Interesting phenom.  This poem, and th...