Steven Riddle

2021-07-23
Bookmarked before I read the comments. And while like Caleb I have no personal
Experience of this, I think back to several versions of the same story with C. K. Dexter Haven and the True Live. As they said, “My she was yare.” Just like this poem.

2021-07-22
Well then I guess you are a diversalotor because your poetic excursions take you so many places.

2021-07-22
So well said. Thank you.

2021-07-22
I love the puzzle of this poem—the intriguing prominents and salients that define its contours. Thanks so much for sharing it.

2021-07-22
Mais oui! Even those of us who have found a sort of reconciliation feel this way from time to time. (Well, at least those I’ve spoken to, I can’t speak for all). My reconciliation would provide little relief or little meaning to those outside me, so I am very sympathetic/empathetic to this strain of thought and feeling. In fact, I appreciate it all the more because it is a true and proper echo of what many call reality. Very well-spoken poem.

2021-07-21
Well, just let me say, I’m glad you got that off your chest.

This is an interesting combination of sensual and at the same time light and humorous and affectionate. Well done.

2021-07-21
Dear Josephus,

In Florida, I have many times seen whole families in the strawberry fields, bent over and picking From Grandma to the youngest legal age for a child to work. Everyone, so that I can eat strawberries. It is very, very sobering, and this poem brings those experiences back to mind. I add my prayers to yours and will take action, in some little way, to make life easier for at least one of these migrant families. Consider your work for the day done. Thank you so much for a beautiful reminder.

Steven

2021-07-21
That one sits to write is in itself good—the product is not subject to any judgment that can be valid because the person labors with all their will and intent to produce beauty. And really, that’s all we can ask for.

2021-07-21
I am as well. Nicely done, as usual.

2021-07-21
This was wonderful. I loved the cadence and the sense of sailing and at sea. Wow! Such a beautiful poem.

2021-07-20
I love the sly allusion here “Sheep may safely graze” (a Bach cantata, correct?), and of course the very name of it. Of course Amos would prefer the old testament. It provides a very clever sort of humor to a very fine poem. Thank you.

2021-07-20
Unless, of course, that Lover is the Beloved, in which case all is given. However, within a human context we will only get glimpses of the Beloved. “Our hearts are restless, O Lord, until they rest in thee.”. As St. Augustine noted. But this is an absolutely beautiful poem! Thank you so much for sharing it.

2021-07-20
Dear Ngoc,

So very nicely done. When I was younger (and even stupider) I used to think a lot about this very subject and how anyone could be so foolish as to do what she did and so selfish. With a few years behind me, I’ve come to understand neither selfish nor foolish, but so much in need and so hurting. And your last couplet really says it all. Thank you.

Steven

2021-07-20
Well, that hardly would qualify as a Fine Mood; however it describes the condition perfectly. It is my sincere hope that it doesn’t resemble you, but given the time stamp I fear it may. Thank you for sharing it!

2021-07-20
Magnificent! I want to add it to my personal prayer book. May I do so with your attribution. It’s OK if not, I understand. And thank you whatever your answer.

2021-07-20
Beautifully kind and understanding. Thank you.

2021-07-20
Lovely. And fundamentally true. Age is the time to be who you are without apology. And that is risky. But wonderfully freeing. Thank you.

2021-07-20
Truly lovely. Is it set to music? It has the sense of a song.

2021-07-19
Dear Ngoc,

I could be reading this all wrong (and I admit to reading with a bias) but what I hear here is the battle between the fabricated “conditioned” self and the Self and the kind of anxiety and unsatisfactoriness this makes of daily dealings. Of course, I could be way off course, but as I said, I’m reading with a (Hindu/Buddhist) biased eye in this case and the poem is lifted for me into an epic battle. If that’s not what you intended, I’m sorry for mauling your work. But suffice to say, I enjoyed the work immensely.

Steven

2021-07-19
Sona,

That is such a lovely exposition of the thought! Thank you for sharing it.

2021-07-19
Nils

Indeed You are THAT and I am THAT and. . .

Again a lovely exposition, always wonderful to hear from you.

Steven

2021-07-19
How very lovely—thank you. I’m not one for forms (my own tend to creak and rumble) but I love it when someone does them well, as here. Thank you.

2021-07-19
Well it’s unusual to see that word in a poem. But what a word and what a poem. This is one of those poems that I didn’t want to see end—which is unusual for me as I tend to prefer shorter forms—but this shorter form could have gone on much longer and sustained my interest. Suggestive of Mary Oliver and perhaps even to some extent Kay Ryan, I really loved this, everything about it. Thank you so much.

2021-07-18
Oh, I really love this. I think of Pascal’s famous “ If I had had more time I would have written a shorter letter. May she give you back a lovely word like petrichor.

Steven

2021-07-18
I truly love “to word out the unwordable”. I want this as a desk sign. A really nice exposition of the thorny problem we all try to work out around catharsis.

2021-07-18
Govinda, who in his manifestation as Krishna drove the chariot in which Arjuna contemplated that battle of Kurukshetra, was a cowherd along with the Gopali, but I suspect, being a chariot driver and urging Arjuna to do what his Dharma called him to, was not a coward. But there’s the exception that proves the rule. I very much like this etymological poem. I love the play of words and the now obvious interplay of cowherd and coward. Thank you for making my day!

2021-07-18
This is so richly detailed, so completely inviting, I love the way it really is “where the conversation starts.”. And the homey details make me want to join you in the venue. Wonderfully well executed. IN fact, brilliant.

2021-07-18
Thank you—beautifully said!

2021-07-18
Dear Josephus,

What an elegant and lovely poem. I loved it.

Steven

2021-07-17
Great poem. I have found that the greatest moment of liberation I have ever experienced was when I realized that I had a right NOT to have an opinion about a thing. I could respond—I don’t know about that thing, I have no opinion. Or, I could say, I know about that thing (whatever it may be) and have no opinion. Or I could say, “I’m so pleased that that thing pleases you.”. Without ever having to say anything myself. But of course there are a great many things I do have opinions about. And this poem is one of them—very fine.

2021-07-17
D’accord, me semble vrai. Merci.

2021-07-17
Ah, my friend, you have so hit the nail on the head! Thank you so much for saying it.

2021-07-17
Beautiful. I appreciate you!

2021-07-16
I like the odd jabs and stabs of rhyme and rhythm that accentuate your theme. I’m particularly partial to Schoenberg’s jammer even though I can be very fond of some pieces of Schoenberg (the early Verklarte Nacht, for example, and some of Moses and Aaron, and even the odd bits and pieces of his most twelve tone compositions.) But the piece I thought of in conjunction with this was Pierrot Lunaire, which is an apt pairing to what you’re conveying, I think. Thank you for a superb poem-experience.

2021-07-16
A wonderful indictment of the common human tendency to separate ourselves, by whatever means (or “wholly Unholy text”) into the worthy and the unworthy rather than appreciating the depths that we share we look at the shallows that make us different and learn to hate on that basis. Thank you—beautifully done.

2021-07-16
We deprive ourselves of so much joy when we rush to judgment, don’t we? Thank your for your beautiful articulation of that truth.

2021-07-15
I love the slant rhyme of phony and honey and the rhythm of the whole thing. And yes, we all have seen more than our fair share of dog and pony shows and wondered (to mix metaphors) why can no one else see that the emperor has no clothes? Nicely done. Thank you.

2021-07-15
Deleted

2021-07-15
Once again, perfectly captured! Lovely poem

2021-07-15
You ARE the angel—thank you for this beautiful prayer-poem! We all must be angels for one another, helping to bear the burdens of the day—thank you so much for lifting my day by your sharing.

2021-07-14
Heartbreak, perhaps. But an enormous strength shines through this beautiful poem. Thank you.

2021-07-14
I read this yesterday and was brought back to it again this morning and decided that I probably should comment—I love the surging forceful power that drives you through the poem. I especially appreciate the lack of punctuation that allows me to read it all in one breath, if I care to—and mentally I do, though I’m not sure I could sustain that feat physically. Bravo.

2021-07-14
I love this, in part because I do battle with it daily. You never are what you are so long as you spend a lot of time thinking about what that is or might be. But silence sings, a siren song, and calls you home to what you are—when you drop the thought that encases. Thank you—I really enjoy your work.

2021-07-12
So very lovely. Thank you for sharing it!

2021-07-12
So simple and yet, not so easy. Neti-neti is a hard road to walk, and yet the rewards can be endless. As Ram Dass is (yes is) wont to say “I am loving awareness.”

2021-07-12
Indeed—You are THAT, and isn’t it a relief when you finally come to terms with it?

2021-07-12
It is remarkable what a complement this poem is to Caleb’s which I read just before. This is lovely, wonderful, and right. Thank you.

2021-07-11
particularly partial to “an amalgam of Khatchaturian and Monet”. I can’t think of much better together, thought there are likely equal pairings. Nicely done.

2021-07-11
Oh my, that is so beautiful. What I can see in your words is so transforming. Thank you.

2021-07-10
Subtle and delightful. There is something of Prevert about the seeming simplicity and the cadence that recommends this poem to recurrent attention.