The Written Word Is Not the Spoken Word

 The Written Word Is Not the Spoken Word 

Abe Lincoln reading to his son Tad.

 The written word 

 is not the spoken 

 conversational word 

(TOP) "The earliest known draft of the United States Declaration of Independence, 

a fragment in the handwriting of Thomas Jefferson. June 1776."

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Composition_draft.jpg
The numerous words that were crossed out, inserted 
and changed shows how the written word is usually crafted.

(BOTTOM) Top of a finished polished Declaration of Independence 
published version, known as a broadside. 

 The written word is molded, 

 crafted and polished 

 And does not include 

 the body language and 

 the silent  expressions 

 of speech 

Sputnik, October 4, 1957

 LAUNCH OF SPUTNIK 

 OCTOBER 4, 1957 
 Personal Stories 

 Eight grade, age 13, Sharon, Connecticut 

 Pete, the town wino, tells us he saw it 

"A replica of Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite in the world to be put into outer space..."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sputnik_asm.jpg

 Waiting for a ride to school 

 in the chill of dawn 

 the town wino comes up to us 

 pointing to the sky 

 "That thing those Russians put there  

 going around the Earth... 

 I saw it," 

 he says slurring his words, 

 "...a little silver ball" 

We stood in front of this building waiting for 

our ride to school in Sharon, Connecticut. (Google Earth)

 We laughed 

 at Pete 

 but underneath we shivered 

 Because as young boys 

 soon to be draft age 

 we knew 

 we would be involved 

Wounded during a military operation in Vietnam in 1967, 

10 years after the launch of Sputnik.

A True Writer Must Write

  AUTHORSHIP  

 Age 13, Sharon Connecticut, 1957 

 To be a  poet  is a condition rather than a profession. 

 Robert Graves 

 At the age of thirteen 

 I knew this: 

Working draft (left) of The Tyger (opening line: Tyger Tyger burning bright) and finished poem with illustration (right). 

William Blake produced a large body of work but did not worry about his audience and was virtually unknown. Only years after his death would he be considered one of the great Romantic writers and painters.

 Whether my writing 

 was good or bad, 

 liked or disliked 

 was not important 

Orson Welles (right)

-- whose fictional radio program, War of the Worlds, caused a sensation -- 

being interviewed by writers and reporters.

 I had no choice 

 but to be a writer 

Autumn Equinox, September 22, 2016

 AUTUMN EQUINOX 

-- when day and night are equal --

 September 22, 2016 

 Derived from the Latin: 

 equi = equal 

 nox = night 

 With electric lights 

 and central heat 

 we have 

 forgotten 

 the delicate 

 balance 

 between 

 Earth 

 & 

 Sun 

Text, design & research by Rick Doble. All images are from commons.wikimedia.org unless otherwise noted.

The Power of Words, The Limitation of Words

 The Power of Words 

 The Limitation of Words 

 Give & Take 

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One of the first forms of writing:

 an early style of Sumerian writing about 4600 years ago on a clay tablet.

 Language 

 gives us 

 the freedom and power 

A page from the ABC trim alphabet book, 

a French book used to teach children the alphabet -- this page is for the letter B.

 to communicate 

 via our shared virtual reality 

 of symbols 

---

---

 Words 

 imprison us 

 with their generalities -- 

 removing us 

 from the specific beauty 

 and uniqueness of life 

One Year Anniversary Online: Haiku-like Poetry

 One Year Anniversary Online: 

 Haiku-like Poetry 
 43 poems & short quasi-essays 

 These poems 

 aim for the intersection 

Starlings swarming.

 of thought and imagery 

 reason and intuition 

 words 

and the wordless

The Poet's Task

 THE POET'S TASK 

by Rick Doble

 The poet's task 

 is to fill 

 the emptiness 

 of words 

 with the richness 

 of the world 

Drawing of Rimbaud by Verlaine  (commons.wikimedia.org)

 SAILING TO BYZANTIUM 

 Example of a poet filling his words with the richness of the world 

 W. B. Yeats 

That is no country for old men. The young

In one another’s arms, birds in the trees

— Those dying generations — at their song,

The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,

Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long

Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.

Caught in that sensual music all neglect

Monuments of unageing intellect.

Verlaine & Rimbaud (far left)

belonged to a group known as Les Poètes Maudits 

(The Cursed Poets or The Outsider Poets) 

which is also the title of  a work by Verlaine (commons.wikimedia.org)

 I'm now making myself as scummy as I can. Why? I want to be a poet, and I'm working at turning myself into a seer. You won't understand any of this, and I'm almost incapable of explaining it to you. The idea is to reach the unknown by the derangement of all the senses. It involves enormous suffering, but one must be strong and be a born poet. It's really not my fault. 

Arthur Rimbaud, 1871, age 16