just going to put this out there. Tim Miller at wordandsilence.com said that this passage from an email i sent him had literary merit, or as i interpreted his response, stirred in him something beyond an email response. i have a lot of trust in Tim’s opinions so i am going to test the waters. if it works it may become a new micro-fiction style which i’ll work on more.
email to Tim Miller
Tim,
here are some poems, which i am thinking about sending to the High Window. they are perhaps a bit raw, maybe into their 2 and a bit draft, & been swimming around in my thoughts for a very long time. they are hard to write because Master-nim, though he will never read them, deserves them to be the best i can produce, regardless; because the experiences i had with him were so life/mind altering, if only because i saw a whole new way of living, which is weird, because we had no in depth discussions, even though he seemed to be able to fill in the gaps of my pidgin Korean & we communicated to a certain point quite fluidly, but mostly we just dealt with stuff, we just got on with something, drank a lot & laughed at our predicament. he taught me through action to not grit & bear, but thrive in hardship. i am still not great at it, but at least i know how to approach that method of being. it is quite sad to see him decline into alcoholism & self-destruction because of his situation, but that is because he is not emotionally fertile, he doesn’t know how to rebel, to complain, to resist people’s manipulation, he just takes each day as it comes eat shit work work work shit work work shit drink eat drink drink eat shit sleep sleep sleep repeat
regards
daniel
It is cool prose poetry. I feel you should focus also on prose because a good poem is still subject to subjectiveness, but prose written by a poet will automatically become universally recognized as great and eloquent prose. For example, of all my contest placements on Poetrysoup.com, my short story Now and Then in Fair Fallhill placed second, my highest placement so far (a copy is here, it’s the sixth one down):
https://purelandsutras.wordpress.com/2016/10/09/a-collection-of-poems/
Thus, beautiful, clever and ornate prose will help you reach an even wider audience. Certainly an advantage worth keeping.
i have a bit of prose. I’ll publish more soon & I’ll read your short story tomorrow & let you know my thoughts.
Thanks, I look forward to your comment and to your eloquent prose!
a few days late to respond, but I still like it! it’s even better as an accompaniment to the actual poems you sent, which as you mention are a bit raw & scraggled, which can be more beautiful & accurate sometimes than something more finished
i am seeing this as an introductory piece into two things: a new potential form & the focusing in on a yet undeveloped character.