The Heat of Life

Dearest Poets of All Ages, Welcome to the unique magic of poetry! I may disqualify myself by saying I don't like using the term modern as it usually implies that we are smarter, more advanced, better than our ancestors, which a study of history disproves, as do the great poems of Homer, the Bible, Chaucer, Shakespeare, the Romantics. May I use instead, 'honest poetry' which is simply putting yourself, your soul into your writing (though that may not as easy as it sounds.) 10 tips for writing: 1-be clear 2-be personal but not idiosyncratic 3-don't try to impress 4-failure to follow the first three has lead to the deplorable state of much 'modern' poetry where readers scratch their heads, asking what the heck it means? The best poetry form Homer to the Psalms to the Bard has always been clear, and GRASPABLE! 5--keep in mind that simple is not the same as simple-minded 6-proofread! 7-don't rely on spellcheck (it often lies) 8-let 'them' come to you, and-- write them down as soon as you can 9-revise cautiously, lest you make a good poem bad 10-Most important, ENJOY! Write for the thing itself (it took me a lifetime to get this):if you touch even one heart, one soul, you have won! And that is what the poems I'm writing now, as a old man, have given me: a sharing of my heart, my life, even my soul with a few others in our vast, cold world-the 'heat of life'. My themes are 2: the lessor is aging, the greater is the endless soul, and the myriad intimations of eternity found in our mortal existence. References:the Bible, Shakespeare, the Romantic Poets, history, Blake personal best 10 THE LONELY BOOK THE OLD TRACKS THE PSALM OF ETERNITY WHEN I LEAVE YOU AN AGING WIFE YOU ARE NOW THAT I AM OLD PSALM FOR A MATERIAL AGE LUDIC ODE TO MRS. MILLER Bio: BA in English, jr, year in England, attended London Film School and grad school; taught English for a decade inc. 2 years (1973-75) ESL in Phnom-Penh, Taipei, and Tokyo; worked in publishing, advertising, medical sales. Wrote poetry, 2 children's stories,and an unpublished novel in my 20's; then stopped writing till mid 60's (no idea why I stopped or why I started again) as 'they'-the poems- started coming to me, God knows why. Been published online at several sites under my pen name, Nolo Segundo, and in print in the literary magazines Adelaide, Foxtrot Uniform, 50 Haiku, and an anthology, 'Sometimes Anyway'. Title for book: THE HEAT OF LIFE ENTRY INTO LINE'S CONTEST, 'TIPS...' May 15, 2018