Howardisms: No Married Poets

My friend, Pete Marzolf, sent me the following poem upon receiving my wedding invitation... The following is my response.

Is it you or is it I
that aft having searched
both the inner and outer thigh
have thought that this is not
even close to need
rather it fulfills only scenes of the
media's American Pie?

How did our lustful wants
of women that we eyed
turn upon us
to make us recognize that
it is more than the treat
we seek
for trully we were
practicing and seeking
that one we could call
our bride.

So it is with this
weak prose
I seek to congratulate to you
and the one to whom you did propose

for her tho it should be a paraphrase
If her eyes were to read this prose
she may place both you and I
in the thro's of those
who still seek
the weakness of Jody and her ho's
or the rapture of that weed
that bears no seed
or the blest barleycorn
upon having drunk I sometimes mourn
to the gods and must plead
Is it a want or a need
Why oh why I ask did you bless
Howard and I

But having read your site
I see that you are quite contrite
for all of that in your single life
Hence the blessing for she that you eyed
Giving you the true blessing of
becoming your bride.

Congratulations Howard

Peter

PS sorry for the prose but your
site inspired me

I'm actually quite impressed. I just hope that you liked my site half as much as I liked your poem.

I don't know, but I've always thought the label, poet, to be too presumptuous. I really consider it to be a state of mind. We flow into that world that is always near but must always be crossed into. The Norse (my ancestors thought that drinking mead would give the imbiber poetic abilities. Now, I'm waxing presumptuous.

I'm not sure if you've heard of Robert Graves, but he was this prolific writer, who archived volumes of mythology as well as writing novels. However, he considered himself nothing more than a poet (... it its pure form … that is, a worshipper of the White Goddess. He felt that this goddess was the inspiration behind poetry (and all other forms of music and art) and was the original form of worship. The nine Greek Muses, who were the inspirations for each aspect of art, were originally merely forms of this goddess.

I found this quote by Chas S. Clifton:

The thesis of The White Goddess, which has been enormously influential among modern Pagan groups, is "that the language of poetic myth anciently current in the Mediterranean and Northern Europe was a magical language bound up with popular religious ceremonies in honour of the Moon-Goddess, or Muse,some of them dating from the Old Stone Age (Palaeolithic), and that this remains the language of true poetry." Graves believed that this language "was still taught...in the Witchcovens of medieval Western Europe."

Ok, so the point of all this (merely than simply dumping my bookmarks file to you), is that Robert Graves felt that there were no "old, married" poets. He felt that once a man settled down with a woman (hopefully thinking that this woman was his Muse incarnate), that he exchanged drinking from the immortal cup, i.e. poetry, art, music, etc. for drinking from a mortal cup, i.e. mowing, weeding, shoveling bark dust, etc.

I will admit that I don't write poetry nearly as much as I used to, and perhaps I don't need to...

BTW: If you want to read an alternative view to Robert Grave's claims, check out this.

Thought originally posted on Wednesday, 4 August 1999

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