The First Three Lines Poem by Daniel Brick
The First Three Lines
The first line is written on a blank page,
and the second line follows without any strain.
I have completed what must happen first,
and the rest will come forth with a kind of ease.
Not the kind of ease you assume, when you set aside
your tools, close your notebook, look away from
the edifice you are building, and let your mind
empty itself, become a hollow place, a chamber
of swirling dust, where men arrive barely conscious
and collapse in disarray, some never to rise.
The third line is not yet written, but I am alert.
I can already sense what its shape and colors,
even what it will mean to me in later years
when these memories will have slipped into
a deeper memory: it will call forth
the texture of its moment, the glance,
the stare, the half-smile. Those are gestures
which both hide and reveal what is essential
to our being. That is why the third line
will be empowered to pull the rest
of the images into the poetic space
and close the circle of inspiration for a time.
The third line is the first step toward abundance. It is the synthesis after the thesis and antithesis. It is also the move toward concreteness after the posing of two complementary principles. From an abstract or metaphysical tension we move toward the texture of a real-world resolution. The resolution can never happen the same way twice, because as you say, the poetic space is filled with possibilities.
This is wonderful, Denis: IT IS AN INTELLECTUAL GRASP OF THE POEM'S DEVELOPMENT.Emotions are the flesh of the poem, but intellect provides the skeleton. A poem is thus both soft and hard, part of it is rigid and part malleable. Your paragraph articulates this intellectual component which is often sadly neglected.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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4/25/2024 8:12:32 PM # 1.0.0.1119
I have never been terribly fond of poems whose theme is the writing of poems. Then along comes Daniel Brick. I swear I'm going to give up preferences because sooner or later along comes Daniel Brick. He oughta come on a Harley motorcycle, wearing jeans and a black leather jacket and have a theme music. Daniel, I surrender. I enjoyed and savored and nodded my head in agreement throughout and now I must admit liking a poem about the writing of a poem. Now I think I will go thud-thud-thud my head against the wall cuz sure as shooting you will write your next poem about basketball and guess what sport I have exactly zero fondness for hearing about much less reading about... and soon I'll be having to say I like a poem about basketball..... As usual, Daniel, your poem breathes life into poetry. 10's upon 10's
Thanks much for your really in=depth encounter with my poem.. I hope I can continue to surprise and delight you, because that means my poem has worked its proper magic. Every poem should be a journey of self discovery, as Shakespeare put it in his last play, ALL OF US (FOUND) OURSELVES WHEN NO MAN WAS HIS OWN. And as you put it so wonderfully, each poem should breathe life into poetry. That's how we should measure our success.