Passages

"A poet must leave traces of his passage, not proof." ~ Rene Char

I cannot pretend to speak for this poet, but I find a commonality with these words in more than one way. First of course in verse itself. I am a firm believer in the magical mystery of poetry. To those who take the strong belief that poetry must be crystal clear I say hogwash! As children and then again as parents we often cheer the magical nature of children's literature, of movies that are presented as children or family oriented. The idea that as we grow old we should cast all which creates an atmosphere of wonderment to the wind and get totally serious about everything is crap. I like to see poetry that evolves into something that still clings to the notion that you or I can add our own finish or spin or derive something very personal from it that the author could not even possibly know about.

But I like to believe too that poets themselves in their work leave traces of who they are behind. Just a bit of themselves in written passages to contemplate in amazement. The very personal side of their work.