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Born Ancon, Panama (at that time, the Panama Canal Zone)

HomeBorn Ancon, Panama (at that time, the Panama...
Born Ancon, Panama (at that time, the Panama Canal Zone)
Started October 18, 2017 0 Comments
Aesthetic Statement
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Since college I have been acquainted with Western skeptical philosophy - from the Classical Greeks, through Montaigne, Descartes, Hume, Kant, William James, and modern phenomenologists. Early on i became convinced that European models of a viable polity are inadequate to American circumstances, so that i turned first to Japanese poets, and later to their Chinese predecessors, as aesthetic models...
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Since college i have been acquainted with Western skeptical philosophy―from the Classical Greeks, through Montaigne, Descartes, Hume, Kant, William James, and modern phenomenologists. Early on i became convinced that European models of a viable polity are inadequate to American circumstances, so that i turned first to Japanese poets, and later to their Chinese predecessors, as aesthetic models.

Chinese poets of the T’ang and pre-T’ang dynasties―including especially T’ao Ch’ien, Wang Wei, Tu Fu, and Po Chü-i―were especially important to my formative years. Many of these poets were itinerant―sometimes forced to wander because of political upheaval or exile―and their poems reflect the landscapes of China, its rivers and mountains. These poems were imbued with the meditative stance of Ch’an Buddhism, in which the individual’s experience of the external world prompts the poet to contemplate the universality of all experience.

This tradition of Chinese poetry dovetailed with my conviction that a good poem should have social relevance, that it was unnecessarily limited if it concerned only the poet’s attitude or state of mind, or aspired only to the condition of music. In the American context, poets like Adrienne Rich have been the most prominent advocates of poetry as social commentary. Without espousing Rich’s (or anyone else’s) social program, my poems direct a constant critical eye on our urban world and its context―the polity that resulted in that world.

Philadelphia – this great city – has been the primary theater of my experience, my here and now. Though i have lived abroad and traveled frequently throughout the U.S. and to five continents, my poetry focuses almost exclusively on my Philadelphia surroundings. “This city notorious/for liberty and its coarse edges” has been a source of constant surprise, delight, and chagrin, and has provided images and experiences sufficient for a lifetime’s worth of meditation. Beginning in 1995 my frequent walks through city streets―with camera in one hand and audio recorder in the other―have been the source of my poetic meditations.

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