I began making American Tanka in early 1980. They are the natural result of finding no significant venue for the mystic lyric. At a party a poet asked why did I, or the other poets around us, so devoutly dedicate our energies to codifying expression.
Noisy egos, identification with iconoclasts, intellectual methodism, a social status that required little compliance with the grinding order, were pallid arguments for withstanding the withering blows from advertisers, the greedy and the ignorant,
the hurtful. That Allen Ginsberg and the Beats, even the dead ones, still drew an audience, further perplexed the question.
That poetry, the sterling word, was required to contribute its essence to the current media kings, debased precision and subtlety, converting that which resonates deep within the human heart with brass and drums signifying mere distraction. In every
book, every true poem, the writer’s central secret is expressed, I argued. The swirl of poets intensified. I told the story of a dream of receiving a great golden coin from Faulkner, of LSD registry with cummings, Blake, Pound, Snyder, Dylan, Whitman, Cavafy, Masters: those whose spiritual generosity surpassed vainglory and cleverness. Participation in the great dialogue was most exquisitely rendered through the distillation of poetic essence: that cogency that energizes consciousness toward making apotheoistic stepping stones that each and all can revel in the magnificent miracle of existence. Resurrection of a new global and universal soul socket seemed the urgency of the moment, degeneration into venality the enemy and culprit. The argument proved a tad overwhelming to the collected; seemingly satisfied to intone importantly before audiences awaiting 50,000 watts of stimulation. I further argued that these unfolded diamonds of benevolent soul are precious gifts, and hence deserve a dignified presentation in forms other than the flat aspect of books. Their kinetic twists of cosmic energy, these nodules of genetic thought, serve us well. Needs be, then, a vehicle on which they should ride, to be delivered to us, each and every one.
For a 141 page pdf retrospective of American Tanka - photos, prose, poetry, method & materials (8 MB)-A.T. Retrospective '02-'07.pdf
revised June 21, 2008
