Perennial Measure: Afterword

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Afterword

cover photo and design by Marcel Antonio

The poem posted on October 12, 2009---"Perennial Failure"---ends this first poetry volume on and from this site, this collection eponymously titled Perennial Measure. Or maybe "Perennial Failure" is the first poem in this collection, should the reader prefer to read backwards in time to the first poem posted on August 12, 2009 ("Perennial Measure").

Here's a backgrounder for those new to this project:

After having written eight online books of poems and an online book of stories written in English, I resumed my online activity in 2009 with blogged poems. The poems were posted here, on this literary blog site, which was put up precisely for that purpose, blogging poems daily---or as was possible---for the completion of another volume.

And that has been achieved, from August to October. And now, this site is moving on: next to appear here will be chapters for a novel, appearing on a one-chapter-a-week basis.

About Perennial Measure, the online book:

On the seventh day of the collection’s writing progress, or subconsciously during the composition of the collection’s first piece, “Perennial Measure,” it probably already became clear to me that the series would be about the practice of poetry and art. But after I laid that assumption down, thereafter trying to follow that course, I saw that I was actually able to create pieces that were also about various other themes, most obviously “Photographs of the Corrupt . . .” and “Importing Quiet Manly Ceremonies . . .”. After all, even the opening title piece itself, about the art of poetry, also already offers a satire—after Eugenio Montale—against the Fascist spirit. . . . With the collection’s progress, it was as if I was leading my reader through the many themes and issues that might confront a poet in his life and everyday world, qua poet. Still, so as not to veer too far away from what I intended to be the collection’s central theme, the collection would every now and again interrupt the constant straying to make me go back to writing another piece or pieces on the practice of poetry/art. And that pull from and push again toward the intended central theme went on to the end of the volume project (which initially targeted 56 pages worth of poetry text). And when I reached the 57th piece of my blogging, which all in all completed a collection amounting to 60 pages in the printed format, I said to myself, “yes, indeed—this truly became that book that I wanted it to be, about the art of writing poetry as a daily ritual.”

So, I say again, approach this collection as it pleases you. Yes, you may consider reading the last poem, "Perennial Failure," first, against reading the first one, "Perennial Measure," first. That's also okay.

Perennial Measure

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About "Perennial Measure," the first blogged poetry volume on this site:

On the seventh day in the writing of this collection, or perhaps already subconsciously during the making of that first poem, it became clear that this series, Perennial Measure (the volume), shall be about the practice of poetry and art. Having laid that assumption down, trying to follow that course, however, I saw that I was able to move later to the creation of pieces on various other themes, as if I was trying to present to my reader those various themes and issues that confront a poet in his life and everyday world, qua poet. But, so as not to veer too far away from my central theme, the series would interrupt that straying again to make me go back to pieces strictly on poetry or art. And that push and pull from the central theme went on to the end of the volume project (which targeted 56 pieces or 56 printed book pages worth). So, approach this collection thus, then, should it please you, and consider reading the last poem, "Perennial Failure," against the first one, "Perennial Measure." Otherwise, you can just approach the section or volume or book how you would rather, as maybe you should. Here is Perennial Measure, the blogged poetry book within this eponymously titled Perennial Measure blogged literary creations site.