I’m going back to the roots of my poetic practice, which were actually e-mails. While I was still teaching (35 years at Binghamton University in upstate New York) I began to discover that writing messages to friends would be many times more interesting if they were metered and rhymed. You’ll notice varied impressions conveyed to friends in poems with the intended hearer clearly indicated. The book includes many memories of music played (violin, fiddle) or sung (folk performance or choir) by me, plus random musical movements or tunes from website presentations. I write about being sick and taking medicine and checking sugar count. I love sudden changes of mood or purpose or level of attention. Poems 176 through 180 are five commentaries on a single verse from the Hebrew Bible. Several times I practice fortune telling with the Qur’an, opening the book at random and writing up the verses that request it. I like humor, quirks, and whimsy. What brought on the eight-part epilogue? I have no idea. I’m acutely aware that most people don’t see their lives as intimately related to wordsong patterns of harmony and rhythm. I create the “supply,” while at the same time attempting to generate the “demand.” It’s the best way to run a business when you’re in a state of rewirement.
Impulse of the Lyric Moment: Everyday Pleasures in Crafted Verse
by Martin Bidney
The lyric miniatures or snapshots I love to write each day turn time into the timeless. I work fast, and my writing tempo is rapid. That’s partly because an intimation, or a revelation, may last only a nanosecond. A poetic epiphany is itself a moment, and a moment is, etymologically, something that moves (Latin mo(vi)mentum). This book of “senior poetry” is a journal from July 2024 to February 2025 of moments from many decades, insights or feelings or pictures I wanted to cherish when made into wordsongs. I preserve the epiphanies, poetic disclosures, of everyday life; of paintings and musical compositions I regularly sample on computer sites; of colloquial e-mails memorable when framed in melodious verse; of spiritualities from a number of times and places; of animals and landscapes that have charmed and refreshed me. The brief lyrics are written in a variety of meters or regular rhythm patterns that are playfully and casually applied to suit changing moods. Recite everything aloud, or the song won’t be heard and you’ll miss the real fun of the project.
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