 |
| "Wejack" |
So I thought I would start a blog to promote the upcoming release of my new book "Telluric Voices". Then I thought: "How the heck do I do that? I mean promote myself? Really? How do I do this thing?" Then I looked around the net, read some information on effective ways to go about this and I realized that I was getting way too complicated and worried over nothing.
Hey! I've been blogging for 6 years now and it never stopped me from writing before right? I have to admit though; this project is near and dear to my heart. After all this collection of poems has been a long time in coming together, I put a lot of work into it and I want it to be taken seriously.
The "fun" I have used this forum for before should not detract from what I have done in this collection; but it shouldn't be a drag for me to do this either RIGHT?. I enjoy what I do, what I have done and hopefully I will continue to do so in the future.
Be "ME" is the idea I guess.
~
When I started putting this collection together (This is the serious part but don't worry, there is fun to come I promise!) I had some definite ideas. I jotted some of them down in a descriptive/statement of purpose as follows:
"We are connected like never before through vast networks of mass media, across borders, across an ever shrinking world, from city to hollow, we have the capability to be the tipping point, that can diffuse and disseminate into everyday life the magic of sociological change, informed by our hearts and the spiritual telluric energy of our physical and spiritual world. From the top of our sacred mountains, informed by the contemplative solitude of our meditations, we can reach and inform the hearts and minds of our nations.
As seekers of the truth, in a world of declining church membership, in a country where most of the population claims to be spiritual, I believe poets are the new priests. Seres if you will, the conscious heart of feelings, conscious of our surroundings, awake and charged by our environment; able to break through to higher realms others forsake on their path to assimilation among the masses. We are the Druids, Prophets, and Naysayers of our time. Capable of bringing peace to the unsettled hordes. Our spiritual awakenings can tip the balance, bring a new way of solace to a troubled world, and fill the void which consumes our society.
"Telluric Voices." is a cycle of 21 poems + epilogue and follows the poet through the seasons over the course of one year in poetic time. It was inspired by the earth energy of my home in the Helderberg Mountains of New York State and makes extensive use of Algonquin Myth as it may have been experienced by the locally indigenous Mahican and Mohawk peoples."
~
JEEEZ! Is that some serious S*#t or what? Funny thing is, I believe it!!!
~
O.K., Now for the FUN part. I love to read in front of an audience. I didn't used to but I have grown to like it the more I do it. Over the past year I have been listening to recordings of my favorite poets reading their work. I think it has helped me with my delivery. (Sometimes when I'm rushed for time not so much.) I have learned that I need to read slowly, I have to stick to my line/breathe length to be effective. (Sometimes it works, sometimes not so much.) The following SoundCloud Recording is a good example of just this sort of thing: I felt rushed with the telling of my background myth in the beginning but when I got to the actual poem and I looked into my audiences eyes, listened to sound my voice, I knew it was right. The place fell silent, they got where I was coming from. Even though I changed things ever so slightly as I read, I connected well enough so that only I would have known my own mistakes. There is a complete transcript of the poem on the SoundCloud Link so you can read along as I recite the poem. Try it. Close your eyes and listen once without reading the transcription. Then listen again and read along. Let me know what you think.
The following is a Link
to the Audio Recording
on SoundCloud
of me reading this poem:
Oh yeah, just a few more things
and a couple of back-links
for those who want to know more:
- The title of this poem is in the Native American Moravian dialect of the Mahican Language.
- For those who are interested in what a real Fisher looks like that I mention in this recording here is a Wiki-link for the The North American Fisher (Martes pennanti) a medium-size mammal native to North America.
- AND here is a Great description of a Fisher not to be missed from the Octavo Edition of John James Audubon’s “The Viviparous Quadrupeds” of North America.
ENJOY!
...and please, let me know what you think!
`·.,, ><(((º>
obeedúid~
