Everyone a Sun

Everyone a Sun

To understand is to dine divinely,
to devour without consuming.
The digestion is perception,
dissolving into the dissolving,
the more thoroughly infused,
the more completely ingested.

The sustenance is representation,
spiced with varieties of imperfections,
cascading into the metabolism
of the processes of thought.

No animal is stalked and slayed,
no fruit is plucked, no fields reaped,
they propagate through the nothing of poetry
and thrive within the enlivening mind.

Garrett Buhl Robinson
2/5/2014

Everyone is familiar with the use of food and ingestion metaphorically representing our sentient functions or the material for those functions, for example: "Food for Thought." In addition to using the similarities as an illustrative tool, I have amused myself through the years developing a more extensive comparison between the two processes.

Of course the process of thought is performed with a physical system just as process of digestion, and of course the absorption of information through our sensory organs is comparable with the ingestion of organic molecules through our digestive tract, as our assimilation of this information into understanding has many parallels with the ingestion of molecules through our metabolic process. But an interesting consideration is that our thought process is a physical operation that actually represents something outside of ourselves, and in many ways, without disturbing what is outside of ourselves. I read a book, I grasp the information and directly transform my neurological processes to retain that information, but the information remains undisturbed on the page. It is a beautiful event.

Also, on an aside, for those of you who enjoy geometry, when considering the alimentary canal, the physical bodies of animals are actually torus shapes.

Daily Meditation

Anytime I catch myself considering my life tough, I walk to the park and meditate upon this tree and tell myself to push harder and grow stronger.  

Interior Rhyme

I have seen a whole tree
grow through a crack in stone
and through the winter cleave
the rock to make a home.

In the spring the broad limbs
sing with the perches they provide
then summer with the fledglings
that fly into the sky.

Then the autumn turns
into the cooling days
and leaves as the sunlight burns
in a falling, glorious blaze.

The seasons change,
yet I remain.

Garrett Buhl Robinson

Coolest Book Club in the World

I bumped into the coolest book club in the world yesterday.  I asked if I could join and in the nicest way, they promised that they would put me on the top of the waiting list.

Check out the article and video on AskaNewYorker.com

Link: http://www.askanewyorker.com/garrett-robinson/cirque-eloize-bookclub/

A fun little poem for the day

Street Performer

Talk about peculiar, but there is
a guy who sits all day on the curb
at the world’s busiest corner.
As people dash to avoid each other
the rush of the mob will often converge
and mash against him with frumpy faces.

As the crowd stands captivated by the light,
he entices them with a country smile
and opens a divertimento piece
with the little lyric he recites.
Extending this gentle gift he sings,
the melody in the song he breathes,
he charms the crowd until the changing light
releases the winged poems into flight.

****

A fun little piece I made up yesterday on a rainy day.  

Art Battles - Dueling with Beauty

New article on AskaNewYorker.com.  Check it out.  

http://www.askanewyorker.com/garrett-robinson/art-battles-dueling-beauty/

The National Writers Union

People are writing more now than ever.  There are more open mic poetry readings than ever before.  MFA programs are popping up everywhere.  Some people believe the market is over-saturated   I disagree.  As our means of communication increase, there is a greater need for people to express themselves with greater clarity and precision.  Most conflicts arise through misunderstanding.  The better we communicate, the more benevolently and productively we may interact as a species.  

On a regular basis, people approach me and ask how they can start their writing career. The answer is easy: join the National Writers Union.  

The publishing industry is going through a radical transformation and the National Writer's Union is more important than ever.  

In the past, the exclusive means for a writer to address the public was through the main publishing houses.  With the establishment of Print On Demand (POD) companies and the marketing tools at the public's disposal, this is changing dramatically.  The stigma for self-publishing is vanishing.  

The industry’s transformation will impact human culture with an equivalence to the invention of the Gutenberg Press.  Just as the movable type press allowed the dissemination of literary works through the general population, our current communication networks are providing writers with direct means to reach the general public in unprecedented ways.  

This presents two major challenges: how writers will use the media for self-promotion and how writers can protect their work.  

This is how the National Writers Union is perfectly positioned.  The local branch in New York has a legal team that can advise members about the negotiation of contracts.  They provide counsel for copyright protection.  They also conduct numerous presentations focused on developing marketing platforms.  The Union also has a presence at literary festivals where members may display their books.  

Some people believe this transformation will spell the doom for the major publishing houses.  I disagree.  In a similar vein, the introduction of cable television did not end broadcast networks.  The major broadcasters remained, but the public is also able to access more channels that offered greater variety.  

Everyone can benefit in the new developments in the publishing world.  The public will gain more literature, the writers will have more control over their work, and the major publishing companies will have the opportunity to sign authors who have demonstrated public appeal.  This is also an excellent opportunity for the unions to strengthen through the transitions in this field by performing their designated tasks, that is protecting and promoting individual workers and artists.  

I am a firm believer in the free market, and the unions provide an invaluable service to preserve the free market by ensuring that workers and artists are not exploited.  

New Posts on AskaNewYorker.com

Quite a number of new reviews I posted on AskaNewYorker.com

Here are the links:

Review of the play, Becoming Dr. Ruth  http://www.askanewyorker.com/garrett-robinson/becoming-dr-ruth-review/

Post for "Move It! with Marcella": http://www.askanewyorker.com/garrett-robinson/move-marcella/

Review for SISTAS: a Musical: http://www.askanewyorker.com/garrett-robinson/sistas-music-heart-soul/

Post "The Span of Poetry": http://www.askanewyorker.com/garrett-robinson/span-poetry/