[Newspoetry] freedom from verse

[david moses fruchter]

free verse.  a self-indulgent form for a piece of self-indulgence.  if i
could have remembered how a sestina went, this would have been a very
different newspoem.


***


i confront myself several time weekly with
the challenge of newspoetry
every time i fail.

do i believe i am a poet?
occasionally.
do i believe i am a newspoet?
well...

to conceive of my actions and desires as a system.
to envision a schemata, and try to trace
the place where faith breaks down.

what could my words do?
so little (says some me) that the more difficult question of
what would i want them to do
is moot, why waste your time.  (a telling choice of metaphor --
    time "is" a precious commodity.)

do i lack intense feeling about the newsworthy?
no.
perhaps, then, that feeling is too intense
raw
(a feeling of raw, painful betrayal)
to want to approach?
perhaps.  i think we're getting warmer, at least.

what happens, is:

the moment i contemplate those issues which are most important to me
most deserving of a piece of radical artistry:
that very moment, all my artistry disappears.
wit, cleverness, a sense of play, and of the profound;
the striking image, the phrase placed for maximal rhythmic effect
the staples of my personal craft, such as it is
abandon me, in the face of the blank page
already seeming to perfectly represent
the emptiness of helpless caring, of too big for me,
of irrelevant empathy.
why mess with perfection?

now we're getting somewhere, but we're not there yet.
has your cliche buzzer gone off yet?
has the sound of its buzzing colored your perception of this
    newspoem as a whole, or its author?
i can almost guarantee you
that it's louder in my ears than yours.
such predicaments, we must forge ahead.

elian schmelian.
campaign finance reform
    lobbyists weather the storm
military black budget
    those who have a knack, fudge it
Nader does well, i guess that's nice
    another President Bush is the price
the nation elects an obvious moron
    won't be too long before there's a war on
microsoft is forced to split
    who could really give a shit?
protesting is back in style,
    say the pundits with a smile
lesbigay marriage is making some leaps
    state-sanctioned bonding still gives me the creeps
pinochet ruled unfit to stand trial
    we're robbed of a chance for collective denial
women continue to be underpaid
    public awareness continues to fade
i hear tell that y'all have still got the chief
    that stinks even worse than a bad piece of beef.

perhap the reason for my reticence grows clearer to you.
it certainly has to me.

you should have no trouble imagining
the voice which says this in my ear:

"just what do you hope to accomplish here,
anyway?"

when i can answer that question,
maybe i'll be a newspoet.

love,
david


ps:  if anybody would like to offer a newspoetry assignment to me or to
the list in general, i'd be eager to essay it.