Jim Goar's Blog

Follow Jim Goar's blog!

If you know anything about me, you'll know why:

http://canofcornforyou2.blogspot.com/

The Man with a Tape Measure Arm

He tells me she’s the kind of woman

who knows how to

handle a bricklayer’s trowel

I remind him about the

time at the lumberyard,

and the bucket of grout.

He shrugs and his eyes release

3 teardrops. One of the drops

asks me if I’d like some coffee.

I feel hopeless, tell the drop why not.

The man closes his eyes and

extends his arm to the coffee pot

a distance of six feet, and tells

me it doesn’t break until 9’.

Iowa Writers Workshop

I can't help but feel envious of the people studying/working here now. But I can't help feeling glad that I'm not out in Iowa. Sounds bad. Then again, where did poets like Jim Goar and Zachary Schomburg and Marcus Slease go? Those guys have the style that I like. Maybe Iowa pumps out some tame sounding stuff; I don't know. I'm not there, and this could be out of pure jealousy. But I know I have a good peer reader here and a good financial situation at WVU. Does everyone who is respected nowadays need to go to Iowa? I think not.

Poets I Marvel At

I'm starting to compile a list of [poets I marvel @] because one of my favorite teachers ever, the guy responsible for infecting me with the bug (terminal, really) of poetry, my intro to creative writing professor at Waynesburg University: Martin Cockroft. He also taught most of my other poetry classes. He said that I should read and read and read those poets that I really love their work, poetry that I feel I'll never be able to write, but that I... want to write like, I guess? I like the first part of that last sentence. Still trying to figure out the end. But, look for my list, look for mini biographies and examples of their poetry and quotes (in many different media e.g. Berryman). Berryman is the one I am into now. I'll post one of his Dream Songs. This publishing engine will likely alter his poems structure but I'll see what I can do.

Berryman Reading

Berryman reading Dream Song 29 in his faux-Brittish accent. He's also quite... drunk.

Berryman

A lovely quote by one of the poets I marvel @, John Berryman:

Well, being a poet is a funny kind of jazz. It doesn't get you anything. It doesn't get you any money, or not much, and it doesn't get you any prestige, or not much. It's just something you do.