All Your Life......
This is a quick intro to my poems. It'll probably tell you more about
me than my profile did. ;) Like I said, I don't even remember starting to
write poems, I just always did it. I remember when we did creative writing
in grade school, the teachers used to eventually make me write stories
because all I ever wrote was poems.
Since some people have asked me, I've
tried to come up with some of my influences......as far as other poets, I don't
know that anyone in particular has really influenced me.......except maybe
Dylan Thomas. His poetry uses such random words to make these images, and I
guess I try to do the same thing in mine, so I'm similar to him in that way.
But I did just get into e.e. cummings last year, and I learned from his
poetry to use words and form freely to make the image you want. So I suppose
those two would be my major influences. For links to my favorite
poets, click at the bottom.
I'm studying linguistics right now,
and I'm trying to work that field into poetry somehow. Linguistics is basically
a very structured way of looking at language.......I love to look at poems
structurally, kind of take them apart, and see how their structure adds to
their force. Some people say that's killing the poems, but the way I see it
it's like surgery: yeah you're taking it apart, but you don't kill it if you
do it right! :) And sometimes it works even better afterwards.
I like to
use nature in my poems. Not that I write about trees and flowers and
stuff....... ;) I try to bring in images from nature that add to the image I
want in the poem. I don't really know why that is!! Maybe because nature is
something everyone knows about and can relate to without having to study it.
Half the time I don't know where my poems come from anyway.....they just sort
of come to me.
What I've got on this page right now is basically what I'm
hoping will be my first two chapbooks (small collections, usually about 17-
20 poems). We'll just see what else shows up here!! :) But for now, I hope
you enjoy what I've got. --JB
Took Me
The Raven and the Writing Desk
Ephrath
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