2 New Poems in a Searching Style

Two New Poems in a New Searching Style

by Tim Kavi

"Bring Again Forgotten Words
to our Passion's Bed"

by Tim Kavi

gentle breezes
swirling winds
when man
and woman
have speeches
again

peaceful passion
rumbling
thunderheads

soft pillows
tossed sheets
bending beds

until the
river's valley
cuts a new course

in the tents of
desire

it is no more
he said
she said
for both
say in
strengthened
passion

I forgot
all the troubles
as love
reared again
the strong
songs
of your redemption

in just a word
of restoration
and forgiveness

until the next
day's love was said
to visit
again and again

for all loves
have the promise
of future
love

if they just
renew the
loving kindness
of a regard

that forgets
the stones
of harsh words
in the wrinkles
of passion's
disappointments

to ride
the glorious
overcoming sea.

"Grand Junction in the Eternal City"

by Tim Kavi

when in the sounds
of the departing trains
clicked down the tracks
leaving the towns

He headed to a new place
the train moved faster now
soon nebulas
stars and galaxies
streamed past

there was a list
of former selves
left behind

they all had a thread
of identity
tied at whistle stops
along the tracks

they loved hard
and died fast
in the music
the art
and the suffering
of war
that bled
along the tracks

there were only
brief seconds
of departing
sad tears
for as soon
as one blur
moved past

he met himself
coming round
the bend
in a mobius
fact

until the train
finally
stopped in the
dying of
the light

it chugged
and steamed
shone
and gleamed
in the promise
of its next
departure

all the stops
he had already begun
so, he laughed:
"I get to ride again!"

poet's note: there is progressive linear movement in these poems that bends again across time, stopping points, between the words and disagreements of a man and woman, time stops moving only in the face of non existence to be swallowed up by a coming back again in a wheel of eternal recurrence that bends and meets itself again like some topological Mobius strip. The poem about trains is an indirect homage to Einstein who had a lot to say about trains in his discussion of relativity.--TK

"Love and History (After the Revolution)" (New Poem with Brief Poet's comment)

"Love and History(After the Revolution)"

by Tim Kavi

when across
the fragrance
of time

our forefathers
jumped
there was the great
undoing
of greatness

creating history
never looked
so easy

the morning after
the blood in the
streets was washed
clean

somewhere
in a back alley
in a small bed
a man lies
dreaming
perchance

clinging
to a desperate hope
that life might
get better

he is history

next to him a woman
lies sleeping
they are so far apart
she longs to show him
her loving heart
romance

she is love

he recalls
plainly the blessed
rains pouring
remembering
when the drops
were wetter

cleansing his
very soul
in a land
once so free

but now
there is no curing
even the caged
birds
sing the same
longing
just to be

the man
dreams he is in
a cool dark
place
really it is
a prison
in fetter

but there
is no way out
until the next
revolution's
dialectical dance

it burns at his heart
for he truly
sings to be free
as it was in love

when he first met her.

brief poet's comment: in this I see the wheel of dialectics, inescapable, yet history progresses, or is progress regress? I also see the collapse of history, without the rising of love. I see the revolutions and dialectics of masculine warlike desires in the lust for power (by any who embrace it), becoming one sided and corrupt. Such are ultimately and hopefully swallowed up by the truer power of the feminine--that is always only nearby if only a man (or such) would open themselves up to the power of eternal woman !

My Fiction Writing

My Fiction Writing
by Tim Kavi

I am writing a novel, but I will be honest with you, I am most unhappy with it at times. Someone said though to get that first rough draft done quickly and rewrite, rewrite, afterwards. Perhaps there is a lesson here for me. There is the story, the vision in our hearts, and that which gets put on the page. Sometimes it seems so different! Many of my writer friends and editors I know in the business (some of them quite well known) have told me secretly that to be 'successful' novel writers in the US, a novel must be fast paced, brisk, and with an engaging storyline but not too complex. One even told me that it should be written so as to seem to not be beyond a fifth grade reading level ! *

I was bothered by this, but I guess I can see the truth in this for the mass audience. I do not like to dumb down my plots or storylines, and there are plenty of mainstream novelists (as opposed to popular novelists) who dont like to do it either, and don't, but they are already published, have a fan and reader base, and can sell almost anything they write. (Well maybe if they stick to what they were 'successful' at in the past).

As far as short stories, you know, I think my fiction stories don't read well, and Nancy Kress has it right, in: Beginnings, Middles and Ends, good fiction has to have a good opening, a middle story line, and ending. I am fairly good at story lines and endings...but my openings suck. In this book, Kress mentions the story in your head and spends a lot of excellent time (in the opening of her book) explaining how to write and revise your beginnings in fiction writing.

Also some critics (and I dont know who), once said that poets never make good fiction writers. Also screenwriters have told me that sometimes they have a hard time making the transition from writing for the cinema to fiction.

You know I dont want to believe this, although there may be a point here. Maybe writers should stick to what they know best. But maybe that should is too limiting. So far, I have been primarily a published nonfiction writer and poet. Yet, I long for more.

I know I have a long way to go. But you know, as far as fiction, I keep trying and my rejection slips prove it.

I will not give up. Every day is a learning experience. And I will again say the best way to improve your writing, is to keep trying, and to keep on writing. Perseverance is the breakfast of all who achieve! --T.K.

* I researched this and according to askville.com (by amazon) the average reading level is the 8th - 9th grade level in the US, but many popular publications are written to lower levels than that, and many fiction writers write to the 7th grade level. And the research that was cited showed that one in five US readers has only a fifth-grade reading level. Click Here to View.

UPDATE: It's 2023 (14 years later) and I have now written novels (under various pen names), have made the transition, and have received outstanding reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and others. They are appreciated by readers, found in public libraries, and are award-winning. So  I guess persistence and perseverance do pay off! ~~TK

On the Writer as Reader

"On the Writer as Reader"
by Tim Kavi


My learning experiences at writing are a mixed bag. The writer does in solitude what readers will come to enjoy, if he or she is lucky and skillful.

Stephen King said that those that attempt writing ought to write four hours a day and read four hours a day. Now admittedly we who work as well as write might not have that much time to devote to our craft, but it is not doubtful at all that good writers are readers.

Now, we might not read things in the same way as the non writer. It is like the athlete watching another athlete, the musician attending another musician's performance, a doctor watching another doctor's technique. We see things differently when we read, we writers.

Many established writers have commented upon this. That we read with an appreciation for the style, the craft, the techniques that are missed by the lay reader, is clearly evident.

To me it is a rich experience, I am very happy and instructed by reading those that do their craft well and although I am still learning when I edit my own prose, I am painfully aware of the shortcomings of my own work. This notice in the act of revision helps me to get better and I like that. But I appreciate a good book, story, or article more than I ever did before. And I enjoy reading more than ever!

The teaching experiences of this cannot be overlooked. Everytime I read something I go to school.

I had a valuable lesson regarding dialogue when I recently noticed James' Joyce's comments about Ernest Hemingway and his use of dialogue. Specifically, Joyce called Hemingway's short story "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" the best story ever written in the English language. When I read it, I discovered that most of the story was dialogue--and skillfully crafted. Wow!

Now, along with my reading of books in my genres of interest and beyond these interests, I am having such a jopyful experience. I read with more depth and meaning than before. I appreciate the work the author had to do. The baring of their souls on paper. Now, I also read a number of books on writing improvement. I am reading Daine Mehta's "How to Write Poetry" and "Master Class in Fiction Writing" by Adam Sexton.

Powerful books that have already helped me. In Sexton's book we are brought along through experts like Austen's work amd Hemingway's. Also, short stories by Joyce and many other great writers to learn our craft. Along the way the book emphasizes that we read part of these authors' works to instruct us from what we read. I will read Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility" and Hemingway's "A Farewall to Arms" as well as Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying" as part of this helpful curriculum. (And there are many more examples that Sexton uses).

I encourage all writers everywhere to relish all they can in the dialectic of themselves and their art; the writer as reader.--T.K.

How to write

How to Write
by Tim Kavi


well it has finally happened (for better or for worse ;-) ), readers of my writing have sent emails asking: 'how to write (like Tim Kavi)'? Although I am extremely honored by such inquiries, and I appreciate such respect (albeit I hope to earn it more), the latter prospect of 'writing like Tim Kavi' is a frightening prospect. Actors get asked the same question and many artists about their art, and the answer is often the same: do your art from who you are !

Really though I suppose such inquiries basically amount to questions of : 'what method do you (as the artist) use'? (Excuse an aside, but I recall one class I had at the University of Washington in the English department called Method, Imagination, and Inquiry. This is separate from the various writing classes that taught other specific writing methods and the toolboxes such instruction provides aspiring writers). Anyway, in that class (ENG 205), taught by Dr. Leroy Searle , various methods of reasoning were explored, including: deductive, inductive, abductive, and heuristic, among others. I seem to recall a rather detailed discussion of Francis Bacon's Novum Organum (1620), and the validity of induction as applied to literary works.

A basic definition of Inductive Reasoning: In logic, the formulation of a conclusion after the observation of an adequate number of particular instances; in rhetoric, the development of an idea or concept that moves from the particular to the general.

It is a simplication, but artistic expression to me does follow from the particular subjectivities of the artist outwards to the generalized perceptions of the readers, observers, or co-participants in the audience experience. That is, it is a move from subject to object, that communicates subject to subject.

This further emphasizes: do your art from who you are ! ;-)

Anyway, as a gross oversimplification my answer to the letter(s) I received about 'How to Write' were as follows:


you asked me about how to write (like me)

the answers are simple but hard to do

1)make time to write

2)write from the heart with passion about something
that is speaking to you

3)if writing fiction let the characters come alive

4) write

5) Handle rejection and keep on going

6) repeat 1-6 as needed

heheheheheh sounds like a recipe? most important is 4!!!

tim kavi



end of entry LOL

Visiting Muse

visiting muse
by Tim Kavi

my tears are like
shed moments
of poetry on a page
and my beating heart
beats right next to yours
as we lie together eye to eye

I can feel your heart beating right next to mine
feel it in my very chest

I think we can be companions in all of life
yet the words will not stop their flowing
my kisses keep coming and going

as each one forms a word
a stanza
a proper fitting
recognition

of all that is
between You and Me.