Content area
Abstract
My primary area of advanced literary study has focused on 20th Century American Poetry. In terms of prosody, I follow the tenets set up by Ezra Pound and the Imagists: to use the language of common speech; to be concise, neither "viewy" nor wordy; to create new rhythms; to allow for absolute freedom of subject matter.
What I value most in poetry is clarity in language and imagery; and authenticity of experience. Like many Post-Modernist poets, I acknowledge the role of the self as the primary speaker or "voice" in the poem. Rarely do I use personae.
Aside from American poets like Williams and Stryk, for example, my work is heavily influenced by Chinese and Japanese poetry. The work of poets like Basho, Buson, Issa, Li Po, Wang Wei and so on, transcends time, language and culture because of its insistence on the personal and the ordinary; things which, despite cultural or political differences, are common to all human beings.
I scan my poems into short lines frequently because I feel that the shorter the line, the slower the pace of the poem; the greater the emphasis on individual words and images, the more intense the concentration.
Reading and writing poetry are, to me, methods of contemplation. I see the very act of writing as a kind of practice which helps me to understand my own mind, to consider my thoughts, to reflect on my place in the world and the world's impact on me and others. Reading poetry can be, by extension, a means by which a sense of community is created, where the joys and sufferings of life are validated and shared by all those who partake in the struggle to know themselves.
