Since reading any poem in its entirety before commentary or reflection is also a snapshot of intention, one can see that the whole hangs together in an effect as much as the components. Therefore, the format here is the entire poem then each stanza with a brief comment by me.--T.K.
"Love is History"
by Tim Kavi
boisterous voices
sentimental
musings
as time
flowed
across
glacial
plains
history
stood
transfixed
in the
face
of nature's
lessons
it was
and will
exist
until the
next thaw
folly of
humanity
to think
they will
persist
the courage
to be
in uncertainty's
orbital
claw
is not for the
weak
but only after
birth
our choice
to speak
I recall
no less
can't remember
my last life
easily
the muses
shrug
how quick
he forgets!
only
the reposed
visitors
kiss
knowing that
love
is the
eternal code.
poet's comments:
boisterous voices
sentimental
musings
(Basically all of our speech and memories; two aspects of poetry itself. Loud speaking, significant, and even sentiment is present)
as time
flowed
across
glacial
plains
(spoken and witnessed through time, there is a strong geography, that is, even Nature seems majestic, seems timeless, as we assert through speech and live)
history
stood
transfixed
in the
face
of nature's
lessons
(even history itself pauses and views Nature. Is taught by nature itselt, that something even exists apparently beyond history)
it was
and will
exist
until the
next thaw
(yet even that timeless Nature and geography is in a fleeting existence, yes big events can change things that even look permanent; such as here we have a vague reference to Global warming in the face of a mighty glacier, the collapse of an ice age, or think of a sun going nova, or an active volcano. In short, all things are not eternal)
folly of
humanity
to think
they will
persist
(it is silly to think that human life will exist forever, likewise that we individually and species wide have immortality--at least in this plane of existence. where death seems to visit all of us)
the courage
to be
in uncertainty's
orbital
claw
(shades of Tillich here, also the Uncertainty Principle, where even electrons cannot be identified with certainty where they orbit in the shell of an atom. yes it takes courage to exist with certainty when even matter is uncertain. Yet we have no choice we allow ourselves to be)
is not for the
weak
but only after
birth
our choice
to speak
(we did not choose to be born that we know of, and can only even speak about it after we are already here--already born. No choice in the matter. Here I am in this body and cortex, in this world and organism. It takes strength to realize this and live anyway. Existential musings)
I recall
no less
can't remember
my last life
(this seems paradoxical. how can we both recall and not remember our last life? This is quantum existence: to be in both states of a contradiction and still exist. At different points I seem to think I remember, but do I really remember what I was once or knew? Or was I? It is true sometimes I think I recall, sometimes I know I do not recall much if at all)
easily
the muses
shrug
how quick
he forgets!
(even poets and poetry live forever in one form or another. the muses recall because they exist outside of time, and get upset that I can't recall. But really, I am saying that even poetry, like Nature, or a sense of selves--doesn't really live forever)
only
the reposed
visitors
kiss
(well we finally accept it, and love anyway. We decide to kiss (love) because that is what matters, really after all. To love and be loved is the more important permanence)
knowing that
love
is the
eternal code.
(yes, the loves, the kissers know, that it really is love that is eternal, and the code built into everything. It is as truth more than a computer program, but yet underlying everything in our existence. It is the essence of a pure love that precedes ALL).
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Blog Special: "Cycles of Freedom" (Previously unpublished poem).
"Cycles of Freedom"
by Tim Kavi
rambling disjointed
sentences
run cascading
tumbling jumbling
into the
joyous mist
of verbal
onslaughts
until finally
the beauty of it
twenty four flavors
of colors
explode into
cosmic bliss
like some 1960s
caricature
of flower
studded
wedding guns
on the campuses
across America
sought meaning
brought seeming
into the
awakening passions
a strong message
of peace
was the fashion
until marching
across
the lawns
up the streets
in the parks
the voices
were so loud
that people
started to tremble
ideas clashing
the world was
smashing
dialectics of newness
were removing
new governments
in power
when
would it unravel
in historical
dismays
the crowd
got lost
in the allays
of larger
sentimentality
until the vapor
seemed
vanished
but really
became part
of all that is
ideas
not banished
freedom
still
marches for
the strong
today
their songs
did not
vanish
they just
seemed
lost somehow
searching
for new
uprisings
breaking out
in a thousand places
too many causes
justice seems
fleeting
but when there is
a final meeting
the right
bloody causes
triumph
in fists
shaken in the face
as taskmasters
that brought
chains everywhere
became
white ghosts
the cycle repeats
history
greets
the next
generation of
reformers.
by Tim Kavi
rambling disjointed
sentences
run cascading
tumbling jumbling
into the
joyous mist
of verbal
onslaughts
until finally
the beauty of it
twenty four flavors
of colors
explode into
cosmic bliss
like some 1960s
caricature
of flower
studded
wedding guns
on the campuses
across America
sought meaning
brought seeming
into the
awakening passions
a strong message
of peace
was the fashion
until marching
across
the lawns
up the streets
in the parks
the voices
were so loud
that people
started to tremble
ideas clashing
the world was
smashing
dialectics of newness
were removing
new governments
in power
when
would it unravel
in historical
dismays
the crowd
got lost
in the allays
of larger
sentimentality
until the vapor
seemed
vanished
but really
became part
of all that is
ideas
not banished
freedom
still
marches for
the strong
today
their songs
did not
vanish
they just
seemed
lost somehow
searching
for new
uprisings
breaking out
in a thousand places
too many causes
justice seems
fleeting
but when there is
a final meeting
the right
bloody causes
triumph
in fists
shaken in the face
as taskmasters
that brought
chains everywhere
became
white ghosts
the cycle repeats
history
greets
the next
generation of
reformers.
Beings in Love: On Dialogue and Character Development in Works of Fiction
Blogger's Note:
Recently a friend asked me about character development, where two of their characters were falling in love in a novel being written. The author asked me how to portray this? I responded with a letter, (a bit obtuse at times), but I believe some of the excerpts of the discussion may be useful. Therefore, aspects concerning 'Dialogue and Character Development' have been reposted below.
Basically, my argument assumes: 1) That characters in a a novel may (but not always) follow social norms and rules from the world of real life (this provides a cultural reality for readers, also known as frame of reference); 2) Characters falling in love in a novel can at least sometimes fall in love like real people do (although idelaized fantasical components may also occur); and, 3) that characters in a novel can encounter each other through dialogue in contextual moments that enhances believability (if the author is open to what the characters are 'saying' to each other).
The main point is that characters are not unique and separate from each other as they interact in your novel, they are happening to each other in a very real sense. Can you (as the artist) listen to what their dialogue is saying in the historical context you helped to create as an author?
Also, the blogger asks for a philosophical point of forgiveness, mainly that the philosophy of dialogue requires authenticity in speaking and address which may beg the question if we are dealing with fictional characters. However, (and without undue philosophical explanation) I will say, there is a difference between fictional characters and fictional selves; and if we are writing of two characters in the plane of human existence encountering each other, the philosophy of dialogue may be assumed to be in operation except where the character(s) are shown to be deceitful in the latter sense of misrepresentation that is deliberate and willful ( a fictional self), as no genuine dialogue can happen in such encounters. Yes, such characters will still have dialogue in general, but their stance is not one of truly meeting another character. Keep in mind I am speaking of two types of dialogue here, but both are important in fiction, characters speaking to each order, and the deeper sense, of characters happening to each other in a true personal sense.--T.K.
Excerpt One:
introductory comments:
...I have been thinking a great deal about what you wrote about, it is quite revealing in many ways... very interesting in terms of the writing process itself and your struggles/glimpses into musings about and with character development...
Of course what I write is always interplayed with my strong philosophical and psychological components of my education and experiences.
Your latest blog indicates that you have gotten much of it figured out, in terms of who your hero is. He is a very special guy, but I think a very good mix of ideal and real qualities which is a dialectic that makes us up in our perceptions of self to other persons in reality after all.
Excerpt Two: On a character falling in love and being loving towards others:
...if your hero loves everyone (sort of like a Messianic hero) then we must realize that he loves contextually and dialogically. That it is the concrete situation with a person he is addressing, therefore is it not possible for him to focus his love in the purest sense to that person, if he is truly present with them, and loving them ? (Obviously to some he might have the love of a father, a friend, a mentor, a warrior, or lover). Now, if he takes this sense (of loving purely with his whole heart) with him across all those that he loves, and his love is pure, why shouldn't it be the same in magnitude if love is infinite?
I know it begs the question whether or not any person (character or real) can ever love infinitely in a finite body or situation, or confined to our perceptions of self and time, but you must let me make my point. heheheh
Basically, your hero can be all of these great things you envision based on the many types of love because he has learned to be in the moment with other persons and situations that he meets. If he is focused on the exchange that is taking place in the dramatic action of the moment then he is present with that other character at the moments that you are describing, and as they are speaking to each other. In this sense, he is falling in love with nearly everyone because he loves almost everyone he meets (to some degree)! heheheh. (the author said this was part of his character--T.K.).
Excerpt three: About characters falling in love:
So the real key in writing about the couple falling in love, is I think, to let him love her as the action is happening btween them. This is the true psychology between person and person, in the moment, each perceiving and reponding to the other, with all of its historical demands and uirgency of what is going on NOW. This is the 'meeting' I-Thou that Buber speaks of. The two characters are happening to each other, he responds to her, she responds to him.
It is natural then, as they have dialogue and act in the unfolding story for them to love believably as long as you can write from each one's perspective in the reality of what the conflict and story presents as you are creating it.
I hope I (myself) can learn from what I wrote here so that I can write and show my characters falling in love in a believable manner!
Recently a friend asked me about character development, where two of their characters were falling in love in a novel being written. The author asked me how to portray this? I responded with a letter, (a bit obtuse at times), but I believe some of the excerpts of the discussion may be useful. Therefore, aspects concerning 'Dialogue and Character Development' have been reposted below.
Basically, my argument assumes: 1) That characters in a a novel may (but not always) follow social norms and rules from the world of real life (this provides a cultural reality for readers, also known as frame of reference); 2) Characters falling in love in a novel can at least sometimes fall in love like real people do (although idelaized fantasical components may also occur); and, 3) that characters in a novel can encounter each other through dialogue in contextual moments that enhances believability (if the author is open to what the characters are 'saying' to each other).
The main point is that characters are not unique and separate from each other as they interact in your novel, they are happening to each other in a very real sense. Can you (as the artist) listen to what their dialogue is saying in the historical context you helped to create as an author?
Also, the blogger asks for a philosophical point of forgiveness, mainly that the philosophy of dialogue requires authenticity in speaking and address which may beg the question if we are dealing with fictional characters. However, (and without undue philosophical explanation) I will say, there is a difference between fictional characters and fictional selves; and if we are writing of two characters in the plane of human existence encountering each other, the philosophy of dialogue may be assumed to be in operation except where the character(s) are shown to be deceitful in the latter sense of misrepresentation that is deliberate and willful ( a fictional self), as no genuine dialogue can happen in such encounters. Yes, such characters will still have dialogue in general, but their stance is not one of truly meeting another character. Keep in mind I am speaking of two types of dialogue here, but both are important in fiction, characters speaking to each order, and the deeper sense, of characters happening to each other in a true personal sense.--T.K.
Excerpt One:
introductory comments:
...I have been thinking a great deal about what you wrote about, it is quite revealing in many ways... very interesting in terms of the writing process itself and your struggles/glimpses into musings about and with character development...
Of course what I write is always interplayed with my strong philosophical and psychological components of my education and experiences.
Your latest blog indicates that you have gotten much of it figured out, in terms of who your hero is. He is a very special guy, but I think a very good mix of ideal and real qualities which is a dialectic that makes us up in our perceptions of self to other persons in reality after all.
Excerpt Two: On a character falling in love and being loving towards others:
...if your hero loves everyone (sort of like a Messianic hero) then we must realize that he loves contextually and dialogically. That it is the concrete situation with a person he is addressing, therefore is it not possible for him to focus his love in the purest sense to that person, if he is truly present with them, and loving them ? (Obviously to some he might have the love of a father, a friend, a mentor, a warrior, or lover). Now, if he takes this sense (of loving purely with his whole heart) with him across all those that he loves, and his love is pure, why shouldn't it be the same in magnitude if love is infinite?
I know it begs the question whether or not any person (character or real) can ever love infinitely in a finite body or situation, or confined to our perceptions of self and time, but you must let me make my point. heheheh
Basically, your hero can be all of these great things you envision based on the many types of love because he has learned to be in the moment with other persons and situations that he meets. If he is focused on the exchange that is taking place in the dramatic action of the moment then he is present with that other character at the moments that you are describing, and as they are speaking to each other. In this sense, he is falling in love with nearly everyone because he loves almost everyone he meets (to some degree)! heheheh. (the author said this was part of his character--T.K.).
Excerpt three: About characters falling in love:
So the real key in writing about the couple falling in love, is I think, to let him love her as the action is happening btween them. This is the true psychology between person and person, in the moment, each perceiving and reponding to the other, with all of its historical demands and uirgency of what is going on NOW. This is the 'meeting' I-Thou that Buber speaks of. The two characters are happening to each other, he responds to her, she responds to him.
It is natural then, as they have dialogue and act in the unfolding story for them to love believably as long as you can write from each one's perspective in the reality of what the conflict and story presents as you are creating it.
I hope I (myself) can learn from what I wrote here so that I can write and show my characters falling in love in a believable manner!
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