About

A poet considers the intersections of language and numbers, connections between disparate entities – the currents stirring within the Phoenician iteration of our letter M and the Japanese character for water, mizu, or the intertwined strands of solar wind and shadows, black-chinned hummingbirds and  coastal death rituals – all, of course, while contemplating good food and that most magnificent of elixirs, beer, which may have been the very foundation of civilization. Or not.

1,419 thoughts on “About”

  8. Hello Robert(0), many thanks for liking the post “The Spiritual Seeker”, p0etry must be the hardest of arts, unless it c0mes by itself. I find it difficult to access, unless it hits h0me like a bullet, the less I think ab0ut it, the better. Good luck dear p0et. Nemir

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  10. Thank you for liking my entry “Call Me Streamline!” After seeing the quality and content of your writing, I consider it an honor that you liked something of mine. Poetry is something I have loved but can’t seem to master. My mother is gifted with a poet’s pen and would read a wonderful mix of children’s stories and grown-up poetry to us growing up. I heard Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” many times by the time I was in Jr. High. It’s a pretty good memory to treasure.

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  15. Like writing poetry, reading it also requires time and space to allow it to settle into meaning. Linda Goodman a now passed on Astrologer one said “Poetry sqeezes itself out of you, you do not write it you channel it.” Interesting take. Your work is well crafted and I enjoyed visiting your site. Thanks for the like on my latest post. Your work is reminding me to return to the more poetic side of my nature, I can get too intellectual sometimes. As well as the inspiraton from you, a little hedgehog has befriended me in my garden recently and is teaching me some powerful lessons on “simply being.”.

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  18. I wonder if I could ask you a question, Robert. It’s something I’ve wondered about for quite a while. If I understand correctly, Japanese is your mother tongue. And you are obviously fluent in English, and have lost other languages along the way. What I wonder is about languages like Japanese where the characters are ideas rather than sounds. Does that affect the way your thoughts are formed? The conceptual framework is so different–sounds versus ideas.
    I flinch when people compare a new artist to an established one–it somehow implies a lesser creative spark in the new comer. But there is something about your poetry that reminds me of Ishiguro’s writing. There is that same calm surface with much depth below. I can’t help but wonder if that comes from working with two entirely different linguistic conceptual frameworks.

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    • I’m glad you asked. English is actually my mother tongue. When I was a small child my family developed our own pidgin language consisting of English, Japanese and French words and phrases, and later, when I was a teen, incorporated some Italian into it as well. We still use many of these odd words and phrases in conversation, and my wife of 30+ years (of English and Alsatian descent) uses them as well. But I can’t answer your question from experience with the written language, fascinated with it though I am. I don’t read Japanese, and my thought process doesn’t have the benefit of that ability. Now I wonder, does Ishiguro read and speak Japanese? Fascinating question.

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      • I’m sorry I presumed, Robert. But I have to believe that your wealth of languages informs the depth of your poetry. I’ve always wanted to create a new language made up of untranslatable words from every language.
        Ishiguro was born in Japan but immigrated to England when he was five.
        Thank you for answering. 🙂

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  26. Thanks Robert…….just experimenting how to do posts. Am going to put up poems starting with age 10, now 73 ! No idea how you found it so soon after I posted it ?

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  29. Hi Robert. Not that you need it but I’m in the process of nominating you for the Starlight Blogger Award. Its a simple way to thank you for reading my stuff and is meant to inspire other bloggers to keep at it. I love your perspective and your photos as well as your focused words.
    It will be on my blog site very shortly this p.m.
    Richard.

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  30. Thanks for the like on my post. I’ve skimmed through your archives. I am thankful to have found another blogger who writes about writing. I’ve only been at this a couple of months, so I’m slowly building my list.

    I love your 50 Word reviews, they are as much a study in writing as an introduction to another’s work. I also was drawn to the Kansas category; I’m in the heart of the Midwest, and I love reading other’s experiences with it. I, too, was a military brat. Oh and I love craft beer.

    Thanks again!

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  34. Thank you so much for stopping by and spending some time at our blog http://onlytheceremony.com and liking us. It is a pleasure to have encountered you and your beautiful images, thoughts and feelings those of your other visitors. What a great idea and endeavor of the 30 and 30. I think it might have been Robert Bly who once said: Write a poem everyday before you get out of bed. Thanks. Please stop back and visit us again. All the best, C&C

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  37. Hi Robert, Much thanks for the ‘like’ for my blog post “Summer Falling Down” which included the lovely autumn poem by Delmore Schwartz. Very much enjoyed your site and the depth and emotion of your poetry.

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  40. So nice to meet you, Robert! Thank you for checking my blog out. I love the few posts I’ve read of your work so far. You definitely have a way with words, it was mesmerizing to read the way you fit them together and let them flow. Very beautiful!

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