doorframe... By Esker/ for Great Poetry workshop.

The brevity is also attractive

Steven's a MASTER even if the poems
seem sometimes presented in a slightly haphazard manner,
this is great stuff, he uses all our emotions,
the everyday things we recognise, the sensations,
all the senses are employed when reading his poetry,
we revel in it,
whether it is about the garbage,
or the wind.

Well chosen my knight, Q ann.

is that I can't relate to what Esker is saying. We agree that Great poetry touches us and hits home, doesn't it?

Doorframe was meeting Shelagh again
a great love and still is
red head and dynamic in appearance
wild eyes and intelligent

we are not models we are characters
and we get more roles
more trouble more love
more ache

Doorframe was across street in wealthy Davisville Toronto
my freind had an apartment there filled with his crazy intelligent
wild friends

afternoon in the cool fall sun falling
busy little street in old town
now surrounded by wealthy old money city
and new rich

Doorframe was not his apartment but where I spotted her
She watched me go in to meet her and come out and cross
street from coffee shop..Second Cup.. a woman was singing
a jazz number and a paino player back up
a Firetruck rolled past slow and when I looked beyond it
there she was.....that old shock of feelings ran through me
and we carefully made our way to meet
she was leaning in a doorframe
studyng me

that in just a title...Titles have a whole immense flash for me
intimate and personal

The room was at night in dead of winter
kitchen and the window looking out to the trees
the slope to the river and farm feilds beyond and
a great hill..very Ontario rural bush with wolves
probably and many trees...snowflakes would
fall down past windows or in the thin light
dazzling me...like rain...something hypnotic
and magical about it...can watch it for hours
does something to my brain..
and then in that semi light
the telephone on the wall....the empty old fifties
bungalow the trucks and traffic going past
on the curve out there and beyond the great
bush...enough houses close to not be too lonely
and then ringing the phone....the old rotary
dial back in 1987...Never met a creative mind
or soul or dazzling voice like that before

and we would talk about everythning for hours
not just gossip..but like these poems
and she would cry...like that lady in the song
by the Smiths Moon River sung by old Morrisey

I was always just trying to chat a friend in college
but the phone would get picked up by the
people and I just ended up talking to her one night
when he was out with his chums
and she would call me

the excitement before making the call
prepping myself I would notice all the details in the rooms
then the phone ringing...
and
she would pick up

...

I can write to be real
but a lot of people think like this
anyway this is the way I think all the time

SHELAGH

I met you standing in the doorframe
the magic was there
in our footsteps
and how our rich voices
didnt need the phone
our souls now ring
when we meet
to do our thing

...

that is simple and easy okay
just a sampler
but the obscure poem I write
is the way all of that expectation
runs up before the phone gets
lifted and its her voice

that never gets old
even now
years later

all that...
i know I write crazy

Thanks Rula for asking

This workshop would not have been complete without at least one, now two, of his works.

His is pure poetry, utterly freeform, mostly. It is characterised by a minimum of words to paint an extraordinarily rich visual and emotional scene.

As I said in comment on his other poem here, I think one of the things that he does so well is to leave enough ambiguity to allow the reader to fill in the blanks and interpret it in the way the reader wants. It's almost like writing a poem whose subtext varies from one reader to the next. Now.........this does have its drawback. The main one in my opinion is the fact that a great many readers want to understand what a writer wants to convey without having to spend too much time figuring it out. I'm referring to readers at large, not those here.........stan

This piece, and Esker's style in general, is not successful because of ambiguity, but because of precision. You wouldn't complain if your mirror were too clean or too shiny. Esker's work uses what James Joyce called epiphany; which he stated was the light emanating from around the words. I think this piece is great.

Ron

teaching moments
yes...

Thank You