Poetry Corner: Insight From Experience

POETRY CORNER

Octohydra by Alex Nodopaka.

– 8/01/18

Hosted by Kathabela Wilson

Our insightful Poetry Corner today was inspired by Alex Nodopaka’s interesting poem, posted in the comment section of last week’s Poetry Corner: Vulnerable. He says: “Your Poetry Corner has been my muse on many occasions.” It is interesting that Peter’s tanka, following Alex’s poem, concerns the naming and focus of insight. All of the poets seem to isolate an almost ordinary moment that becomes extraordinary. I have found this in my own life too that specific insights are linked to a moment, a sight that I can remember, and they are paired forever in my mind, like “paw prints”, like “dissipating clouds”. Like “squash blossoms”. Please add your own moments in poems in the comment section below.

~ Kathabela​​​​

MetaNude art by Alex Nodopaka.

Alex Nodopaka

Vulnerability

Is the condition
When the realization
Of your minuscule

Existence

Becomes so overwhelming
You want to stop the car
You are driving and

Walk

Barefoot and feel
Each grain of sand
Under your feet and

Contemplate

The magnitude of your size
And your imagined
Vulnerability

Ο Ο Ο

Peter Jastermsky

what is gleaned
from experience –
the names
we learn for mistakes
when we make them

Ο Ο Ο​

Merced River, Yosemite by Alex Nodopaka.

Rachel Sutcliffe

paw prints
leading to the lounge
first autumn rain

Ο

dispersing
into birdsong
dawn mist

Ο Ο Ο

Julie Bloss Kelsey

dissipating clouds –
my attempts to recapture
childhood dreams

Ο

checking out
which masks still fit …
family vacation

Ο

isolated showers —
the aching loneliness
of chronic illness

Ο Ο Ο​​

Haiku by Ray Caligiuri. Art by Cheryl Caligiuri.

Ray Caligiuri

dimly seen
the old pond
quiets

Ο Ο Ο

Late bloomer haiga by Mel Gambutti.

Mel Gambutti

late bloomer
an adoptee
learns her roots

Ο Ο Ο​

Photo by Marilyn Ashbaugh.

Marilyn Ashbaugh

morning mist
atop the compost heap
squash blossoms

Ο

Alex Nodopaka is a longtime great artist, and fine poet, I’ve known for many years. He’s experimental and witty as well as philosophical, and his work comes from his heart and experience. The art used here are from his metaphysical theme/series. He says: “Metaphysics always had an intellectual appeal for me since the New Age Awareness Fairs produced, with the participation of my wife in the ’70’s & ’80’s. She was one of the producers in the San Francisco Bay area. It was then that I psychologically and physically experienced several extraordinary experiences. Until then, they were purely intellectual events. Driving along, looking way up the hills in Laguna Niguel, I ‘sensed’ becoming infinitesimally small and then immediately large.” This experience of insight, however it happened, stayed with him and continues to inspire his art and poetry

Peter Jastermsky, in Irvine, California, muses on our theme: “Naming our experiences is a product of insight. Repeating an experience says there’s a lesson to be learned, and insight helps us ‘get’ the lesson. Once we get the lesson, we can graduate to different, and hopefully, higher level of function.”

Rachel Sutcliffe, in the UK. says it is “the small simple things that make such a difference. Nature shows us a way forward.” Her haiku traces fond memories “of our childhood pets and how the simple signs of the changing seasons touch every part of our daily lives.” Her second poem “dispersing” recalls the beautiful moments that can come out the blackest times”.

Julie Bloss Kelsey, of Germantown, Maryland, says: “As I age, it becomes clearer to me that there are things we can’t hide about ourselves, no matter how hard we try. Secrets peek from around the blinds we use to shutter our souls. It is a lonely existence to attempt to stay hidden. Finding a way to make peace with my limitations while revealing myself to others is unfamiliar territory, but a necessary path to personal growth.”

Ray Caligiuri, along with his wife Cheryl, live in Beaverton, Oregon. He tells us: “When Cheryl completed this high flow acrylic on yupo paper, she called it Bloom”. Ray’s insightful brief haiku was inspired by her painting and beautifully accompanied it. He feels the old connection between haiku and the old pond. He ferls the reality of the mortality of life as senses dim, and insights bloom from experience in the great ocean of life.

Mel Gambutti, in Sarasota, Florida, says: “Adopted in 1952, I searched and found my birth mother, hakf sister, and traced my ancestral tree without benefit of internet In 1993. DNA testing allowed me to identify my deceased father and locate paternal half siblings in 2016. My poem and photo of Adenium simply relate profound meaning of my quest for roots. I write and publish my stories as Mary Ellen Gambutti”.

Marilyn Ashbaugh lives in Edwardsburg, MI. She says: “My most profound insights occur from observing nature. The last week was a rough patch for me and all my relationships suffered. Filled with confusion and doubt, I knew I had to let go and surrender these thoughts and feelings. This morning I walked to the compost heap to find this squash blossom, the flower of my surrender”.

Ο Ο Ο

♣ You can add your contribution to our Poetry Corner in the form of a poem, in our comment box below​.