for a creative writing class.
We had an assignment each week
and by week three I was out of ideas
so I wrote a story about writer's block
that turned out pretty well--
That became one of the major themes of my art,
such as it is
art about art
because there's nothing else to talk about,
|novels about writers who are writing
novels about writers who are writing
novels about, hell, I dunno, me, I guess.
If I was deeper person I would have deeper themes,
and sometimes I come up with something.
Love was a theme for a while,
And I got some mileage out of angst and depression
and drunkenness and the fear of going mad--
But eventually I'm left writing a poem
about not knowing what to write a poem about.
Metatextuality, they call it--
that act of creative, self-reflexive self-awareness.
The colloquial term is being a dumbass.
* * *
Omniphoria
Dragons hoard gold and gems cups and crowns
Pseudodragons hoard any shiny crap they see
like spoons
beer bottle caps
or whatever
crows collect shiny things too
paper clips and such
carry them around
show them off
sometimes give them as gifts
to children who set out food for them
It is omniphoria
a neologism
Greek omni ‘all’ + pherein ‘carry’
-> ‘all-carrying’
and it applies to the artists too
the painters singers poets makers
who collect the shiny little things
carry them around
show them off
and then make gifts of them.
* * *
"Omniphoria" originally appeared in Suggestion Box: Fifty Poems.
