PRE-POETRY (1978-1984) Poem by Vlado Martek

*
you can wander through language
endlessly.
To have an attitude means to offer
a model: the pre-poem and its content
fulfil/carry conditions, attitudes,
materials, tools, backgrounds with its
meanings.

*
Every grasping
of a pen in hand
is an act of honesty

*
I withdraw myself from all
poems, ready to be responsible
for the future poem, created
through work on poetry

*
Preparation is a poem
is a pre-poem

*
three freedoms freedoms
freedoms

*
I change my opinion
about poetry
three times every year

*
one poet
minus one poet
equals zero poets

*
one two three four
five six seven eight
nine ten eleven
twelve thirteen
fourteen fifteen
sixteen seventeen
eighteen words in poem

*
in Croatia there are
121 old poets
and 239 young poets

*
three hundred metaphors divided
by eighteen poets equals
twenty metaphors and one poet

*
three to five subjects
plus five subjects
equals eight to
ten subjects

*
23rd torment

*
it's a pity
everything is
poetry

*
here lies a naked word
written
only with hand and machine,
I have not created
a future for it

*
state, I'll disfigure
you with poetry

*
I renounce
metaphor

*
if I were a poem
I would be a bird

*
I stand for poetry
and you only write it