One Point Concerning Maritime Law

Jenny put this piece together for Spring Art Scene. 

"One Point Concerning Maritime Law" is a Tiny Drawing Poem by artist Jenny Mathews and poet Thomas L. Vaultonburg

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Shiitake by Thomas L. Vaultonburg

This is another Tiny Drawing Poem we'll be showing at Spring Art Scene. Last year people were buying them right off the walls. 

"Shiitake," poem by Thomas L. Vaultonburg, illustration by Jenny Mathews

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The Sunflower's Face Haiku

Here is the latest haiku in the Tiny Drawing Poem series. The Sunflower's Face. 

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Bridge Haiku With Tiny Drawing by Jenny Mathews

Not breaking the fourth wall in poetry is a time-honored tradition challenged  by very few poets. One of the most notable and successful examples is the Candian poet and singer Leonard Cohen, who transgressed against this taboo with wonderful results in his book of poems The Death of a Ladies' Man. The juxtaposition of the narrative with the incisive analysis, or expansion of the narrative at the idiosyncratic level by the poet himself adds a power and depth to what are already magnificent poems. Cohen's poems were brought to mind last evening when all my Earthly duties had been fulfilled, and I decided to use the remaining moments of the deepest part of the night to luxuriate by writing a poem. Little did I know I wasn't writing a poem at all, just taking dictation from myself as I had written the poem earlier that day crossing the footbridge under Jefferson Street Bridge.

When I saw the poem I realized I hadn't written a poem about a bridge at all, but about myself. About purpose. About the necessity of commitment to purpose that must transcend the ravages of time and the whims of the seasons. One stands and continues to stand even in the face of evidence to the contrary. Hopefully one even provides a path for others to cross from a place they were to a place they never have been. In that sense I used the word disbelieved, normally considered a negative, as an affirmation in the last line.  As I write Jenny is doing the drawing that will become our next Tiny Drawing Poem which I will post right here

March 1, 2013 update: I recently was asked to do a rather significant archiving project for the town I live in, a history of recent poetry. Jenny is designing a banner for the project, and this very bridge is involved. 

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Tiny Drawing Poem (Avocation)

The Objectivist poet W.C. Williams had as his credo "No ideas but in things." This came flooding back to me this April 1st. I've been having the compulsion lately to abandon lyric and narrative poetry and write Imagist, Objectivist, and haiku poetry. What a turnabout for a writer who has been no fiercely dedicated to telling his own story in his own words for so long. Poems without me in them? It would have seemed ridiculous to me even a few years ago. April reminded me of this poem and Jenny brought it back up today and I asked her if she had a drawing in mind for it. So she made the drawing. The font is KG You Won't Bring Me Down. It is the 11th Tiny Drawing Poem we have made together this year.

Downspout

See all of Jenny's Tiny Drawings

See more of our Tiny Drawing Poems

April may have been the cruelest month for an icy-minded poet such as T.S. Eliot, but I prefer how an Objectivist poet feels about Spring...

April

If you had come away with me 

into another state 

we had been quiet together. 

But there the sun coming up 

out of the nothing beyond the lake was 

too low in the sky, 

there was too great a pushing 

against him, 

too much of sumac buds, pink 

in the head 

with the clear gum upon them, 

too many opening hearts of lilac leaves, 

too many, too many swollen 

limp poplar tassels on the 

bare branches! 

It was too strong in the air. 

I had no rest against that 

springtime! 

The pounding of the hoofs on the 

raw sods 

stayed with me half through the night. 

I awoke smiling but tired. 

William Carlos Williams

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Home (Tiny Drawing Poem)

This Tiny Drawing Poem is titled "Home." The font is 256 Bytes, an unusual choice, but one that fit. I love doing this series because Jenny is such a great artist Tiny Drawings. We work hard on these and sure do appreciate it when we get feedback from people or someone likes it enough to share our work. The font is a little hard to read, and readers should keep in mind Tiny Drawings are, well, tiny, so you'll have to click the image to read it. 

Please look at our other works in the Tiny Drawing Poem series Roller Girl, The Fourteenth Way of Looking At a Blackbird, The Perfect Crime, Shingetsu, Halloween 1974

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Jack (Tiny Drawing Poem)

This poem is for Jack. The Tiny Drawing was done before there even was a Jack. Well, there was a Jack, and even before that there was a Jack, but he hadn't officially appeared yet. Being from Houston Jack is surrounded by NASA. The font is Space Toaster. I hope he goes and I hope he doesn't go because I would miss him. 

Jack Rocket

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The Fourteenth Way of Looking at a Blackbird

In 2011 several thousand blackbirds mysteriously fell from the sky in Arkansas. Prompting a storm of conspiracy theories concerning everything from weather modification to tests of electromagnetic pulse weapons. My suspicions of something nefarious being afoot were allayed soon after by hearing several credible ornithologists state that it's not a particularly uncommon phenomenon. It happens several times every year all over the globe. 


Last week the Baltimore Ravens beat the Houston Texans to advance to the AFC Championship game. One more win and they will advance to the Super Bowl. The team is named for the creation of a poet, but I doubt many of the hardcore football fans know that. Still, something about that tickles my sensibilities.

There is no real difference between a crow, a raven, and a blackbird. Only size. 

Earlier this week a mysterious figure who showed up every year at Poe's grave to make a toast to the writer failed to show up for the third straight year. 

I wrote this Haiku when I heard the news story about the blackbirds of Arkansas. The font is, of course, a Gothic font called Uberholme. And as all readers of poetry know, the inspiration for the poem is Wallace Steven's poem Thirteen Ways of Looking At a Blackbird. Here's what I did with a Tiny Drawing I remember Jenny had drawn earlier in the year...

And here is what a master of poetry did with the subject

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

Wallace Stevens

I 

Among twenty snowy mountains, 

The only moving thing 

Was the eye of the blackbird.

II 

I was of three minds, 

Like a tree 

In which there are three blackbirds.

III 

The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds. 

It was a small part of the pantomime.

IV 

A man and a woman 

Are one. 

A man and a woman and a blackbird 

Are one.

V 

I do not know which to prefer, 

The beauty of inflections 

Or the beauty of innuendoes, 

The blackbird whistling 

Or just after.

VI 

Icicles filled the long window 

With barbaric glass. 

The shadow of the blackbird 

Crossed it, to and fro. 

The mood 

Traced in the shadow 

An indecipherable cause.

VII 

O thin men of Haddam, 

Why do you imagine golden birds? 

Do you not see how the blackbird 

Walks around the feet 

Of the women about you?

VIII 

I know noble accents 

And lucid, inescapable rhythms; 

But I know, too, 

That the blackbird is involved 

In what I know.

IX 

When the blackbird flew out of sight, 

It marked the edge 

Of one of many circles.

X 

At the sight of blackbirds 

Flying in a green light, 

Even the bawds of euphony 

Would cry out sharply.

XI 

He rode over Connecticut 

In a glass coach. 

Once, a fear pierced him, 

In that he mistook 

The shadow of his equipage 

For blackbirds.

XII 

The river is moving. 

The blackbird must be flying.

XIII 

It was evening all afternoon. 

It was snowing 

And it was going to snow. 

The blackbird sat 

In the cedar-limbs.    

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The Perfect Crime (A Tiny Drawing Poem)

This is the poem I worked on today to accompany a Tiny Drawing by artist Jenny Mathews. The challenge here was that not only is this a Tiny Drawing, it is the tiniest of the Tiny Drawings. That flower is smaller than the head of a thumbtack, so every time I tried to use a font the text looked enormous. Finally I chose the Gabriola font. Also, I know it's against the unwritten rules to discuss a poem, but this particular Tiny Drawing is very atypical of the type of detail this artist puts into a drawing. I know this was done intentionally so I chose this drawing and coupled it with a poem I consider understated and minimalist. It's a scene I actually witnessed from my window overlooking one of the busiest intersections in my city. The Midway is a real old time theater on the next block. I like this. I want to try and make one of these every day, pairing a Tiny Drawing with a poem, using a different font for each one. Please feel free to share this if you like it. You can also see the entire gallery of Tiny Drawings at Tiny Drawings

More Tiny Drawing Poems

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Why I De-Activated My Facebook Account and Covet a Freudian Couch

Last night at midnight I de-activated my Facebook account.


I had to. It was ruining my ability to write. 


These first two sentences are a perfect example of what I mean. I have literally started writing in status updates.


Which is fine for Shecky Green, or anyone who's life's ambition is to deliver one-liners in the Catskills.


However, at the age of 42 I still dream of being a poet when I grow up. 


Hopefully, as I ween myself from the habit of encapsulating of summing up an experience in 120 characters or less I'll regain the ability I once had to just keep writing until I felt what I wanted to say had been said. 


Today I started working on a project of combining my poems with Jenny Mathew's Tiny Drawings. This is the first one I finished. 

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