Nose to Nose

Lyric form is the lineage of poem, as it is of sacred
and mystical texts.

Poems  that  prick  our  imagination   from  generation
to  generation  structurally  encounter  the  known  and
unknown: this is the lineage pulsing within us.

Poetry,  as music, is intrinsically  an  airborne art form:
poem  must   navigate  page   like   a  voice  in  space.
Contemporary  poetry  often  appears  to  be a   visual
art  form,  yet  the most  compelling  poems  integrate
sound and sight.

When hearing a poem  in  a language  from  a culture
we do not know,  full  comprehension  remains out of
reach.  Unlike   prose,  however,   poem’s   signalling
power is nevertheless operative. Poems transmit the
sentiments of their  sonic territories via each  poem’s
unique  set  of  emotive  tones  and  narrative  energy.
We are impacted on a  cellular  level.  Poem “speaks”
to us in the  same  way that “foreign” music and visu-
al art get through to us.

The body breathes the poem breathes the page.

When  poem  and  the  poet’s body  share a profound
intimacy,  poem  and  page become  lovers— nose to
nose — inhaling/exhaling one another’s breath.

Scored spaces inhale.

Scored lines exhale.