Dreamless Nights Comments

It can happen that the more your loving bridges to the transcendent mystery, the less it involves the particular person; instead, the quality of their inner resonance. It can happen that the greater your poetic vision, the more you live with a constant cycle of approach and withdrawal from glittering lures.

You know Wordsworth's famous definition of poetry from 1799: EMOTIONS RECOLLECTED IN TRANQUILITY. I still love his poetry but this definition is outdated. His assumption of TRANQUILITY being the creative atmosphere is belied by the image of you sitting on the edge of your bed trying to recover your dreaming powers. THAT is not a picture of tranquility, which is a mind impossibly still. Yours is racing, burning, grasping, panting, etc. And the energy of the poem comes from that immediacy of your mind in a creative upheaval. And Wordsworth clearly means RECOLLECTION as a passive, receptive, quiet frame of mind. Wouldn't that be sweet if we could summon such an inner balance - that would put psychologists out of business, and maybe shut down churches that preach salvation. And EMOTIONS as the primary subject matter may still be true, but at the beginning of the 20th century, Rilke argued poetry is made up of EXPERIENCES, which is at least one step beyond emotions, maybe more. This very poem we are both inside of is one of experiences, not just the emotions which are its energy source. This poem is concerned not just with emotions which rush through the body and soul, but rather how the body and soul will use that emotional energy to create an inner world that is satisfying, restorative, creative, fun-loving and that will run parallel to the outside world with its inevitable let downs - and those tiresome evenings sitting at the edge of the bed. These thoughts are the result of my self-talk over DREAMLESS NIGHTS, but I don't think they misrepresent the mood and thrust of your poem. Whatever it is that we wait for in the solitude of the night - day dreams, night dream, visions or a warm body nearby - whatever keeps us from the oblivion of sleep, it is the crucial experience that produces our poetry.

To imagine is my only charm, only power that I realize with imagery here shared with powerful expression. Wonderful sharing....10