Phoenix
by Dale J. Sprague
Reveries
4.1998 I think poetry is more allusive or perhaps more subtle or even more sophisticated than what I compose, especially the work of those who are knowledgeable and trained in writing poetry. Respected poets have peers and a specific reading audience for whom they've developed a sensitivity. I have no peers, and I compose for myself, all and everyone. I tend to use metaphor sparingly. Too many metaphors, and later, I would be joining everyone else puzzled in a cross'word universe. I do not set about writing poetry with comprehensive knowledge of poetry so it will be recognized as poetry, attendant with peers and predecessors...such as the psychology of Yeshua ben Gabriel, the poetry of Shakespeare, the streaming consciousness of James Joyce, the streaming of Picasso's literary art are but a few.
I became aware early that the greatest sense of freedom I could ever experience would be in mind. I can think freely whatever I want, but not necessarily do anything I want. As I eased into the workforce fifteen years later, I adapted as a technical writer, but accustomed to thinking freely. Being use to thinking whatever, necessitated a need to find a medium which enabled me to express myself freely. Unexpected events customized my right hand for a pen. My art began as metaphysical ponderings, but nothing was worthwhile keeping until I began to integrate metaphysics, feelings, emotions, as my sense of aesthetics became apparent, as my sense and sensibilities began to take shape about life, the world..all I experience in it.
Literary composition, my art has effected a balance that I've always needed since I became aware of where my true sense of freedom is. And I have discovered that through my art, I evolve through death and transfiguration. With each piece, I experience a death which effects simultaneously, a transfiguration, afterwhich I experience the familiar with new eyes. With each piece, there is more than a mere record of who I was. I stay in touch with me. I can become involved deeply. My art allows it..yet, through it, I avoid losing myself in all the world or anyone in it.
My art gives me the balance I need, the freedom I need, and my self, which I need. Composing and orchestrating words for a technical or scientific reading audience and for myself has become my vocation and avocation, respectively. As words give me bread and wine, I am compelled to give them body and blood. When I no longer have that vocation, I will still have that body to work and its vitality as it lives on.