Scott Owens is right.
Towards a Poetics of Excess
By Scott Owens
What we need are more
words, longer
lines, stanzas that
pile on without pity or mercy,
poems that shrink from nothing,
poems that refuse consideration
of politics, correctness, or caution,
poems ripe with intention
and ready to burst.
Who wants to read anything
on the head of a pin?
Why choose
when you can keep it all?
Say I came to a cliff.
Say the air fell off into nothingness.
Say the past pushed me to the edge.
Say there was no turning back.
Say I couldn’t resist anymore than you
and all I had to walk on
were the words I held in my mouth.
Who wouldn’t want a poem of excess,
one that leaves you almost exhausted,
tongue-tied and dripping sweat,
gasping for breath, for words, for anything
that might make another moment of meaning?
I think you have the right idea. Nice to read your work.
Thanks for this poem. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I read one good poem a day. This was that one good poem. Thanks.
Paul, I love your poem. It strikes me as amusing that the title is “Towards a Poetics of Excess,” (great title, by the way), your poem is a masterful example of concision–not a bit of fat on it anywhere; you made every word count in its sense and in the way it lies on the page. Thanks for it!
Fascinating poem! Love it! I can easily relate to your great words of description.