Note to Readers

Just a short note to the few readers who follow me.

First, to thank you for reading. If you've had a look at Half Remembered, you'll understand that a poem isn't complete until it's been read. Writing is intrinsically satisfying. But it's only meaningful if it can create at least a momentary convergence of thought, feeling, and worldview between two people. This is the rare intimacy that, in our sovereign and essentially unknowable singularities, good writers try to achieve and attentive readers seek. So thank you for your collaboration in our shared project. 

And second, you may not know that every couple of days I revisit the previous week or so of posts, and often make some small revisions. This has been especially so recently, when in my natural enthusiasm for a just completed piece, I've been tending to jump the gun and post too soon. It takes at least a day away before you can bring fresh ears to a poem, tuning in to the rough patches, weak prosody, mistaken word choices, and over-writing. So I invite you to also go back and revisit.

And, at the risk of sounding patronizing to fans of poetry, I'll take this opportunity to remind you that poetry is meant to be read at the pace of the human voice. It began, after all, as an oral/aural medium, passed down not in print but by memory. And it it is still written to be recited, not read. If you scan it like reading prose – skimming, racing, a little impatient to get to the end – then you'll miss the writer's best intent.

I'm sorry to have posted incomplete or poorly edited work. I'll try to show more restraint in future!

Brian