Kit Robinson: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

photo by Eric Breitbard

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This Poem

 

This poem is incredible
You should immediately memorize it and tell it to all your friends
If you read this poem over and over
You will be better able to read and understand other poems
Any poem!
Life goes on and off
Death goes off and on
Shit happens
Just like in this poem
Which is like an elixir or vaccine

Sometimes this poem is like overhearing a conversation in the next yard
A moment of relaxation
In your otherwise busy day
Other times it’s more like thinking about something
Then thinking about something else
It never stops
Even when interrupted by a passing train
In that sense, this poem is immortal
In so far as it is always on the move
To no particular end

When you dream a poem
The poem is often odd
Weird, asyntactic or wild
This poem is totally normal
It teaches one how to live normally
Under the most abnormal of conditions
Put one foot in front of the other
Is how the ancestors put it
They even put it into this poem
So that anyone would be able to see what this poem of our life on earth is made of

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Kit Robinson is a Bay Area poet, writer, and musician. He is the author of Quarantina (Lavender Ink, 2022), Thought Balloon (Roof, 2019), Leaves of Class (Chax, 2017), Marine Layer (BlazeVOX, 2015), and 20 other books of poetry. His essays on poetics, art, travel, and music appear online at Jacket2, Open Space and Nowhere. He plays Cuban tres guitar in the charanga band Calle Ocho.

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                                                                Autobiography, collage by Ray DiPalma ca. 2015

Comments

[Grace Cavalieri]

Oh yes, a perfect poetic summation of our human (kind)
and the poem is so happy to be a part of this.
Also LOVE THE ART TP

[David Lehman]

"This poem is totally normal
It teaches one how to live normally."
I've got to re-read it!
Quite a collage, too.

[Terence Winch]

Thanks, Grace. Ray DiPalma was a good friend & poet who also made a lot of collages. He died in 2016 at age 72.

[Jack Skelley]

Love it! Meta-powered elevating reminds me of Bob Flanagan's "Fear of Poetry" -- thanx Kit and Terence!

[lally]

delightful poem and artwork, thanks kit and ray, and for making it happen here: terence,

[Maureen]

Kit rules!

[Indran Amirthanayagam]

Put one foot before another then turn around and do it again
and again. Then begin once more putting one foot in front
of its neighbor, in your back garden, across the fence
so he or she can see you stepping and will then copy
you, roger this, roger that, as will the next neighbor
down the line, until the whole community, subdivision,
gated or not gated, will be stepping in line
and forever in tune with the poem of Kit Robinson.

Thank you

Indran

[Terence Winch]

Michael: Thanks for the comment.

[Terence Winch]

Jack: Thanks for the comment.

[Bernard Welt]

This comment is amazing.

[Terence Winch]

Bernard: No---it's extraordinary.

[Beth J.]

Well done Kit and Terence! Good to smile.

[Terence Winch]

Thanks for the comment, Beth.

[clarinda harriss]

I agree: this poem is incredibly credible, as somme of our newscasters insist on saying of one report or another. The riddle of how the mind IS a poet whether it wants to be or not. I do say this poem constantly just by being a human critter and having thoughts that may occasionally be expressed in words but often not in words.

[Bill Nevins]

this poem, to be recalled in silence, somehow spoken in silence, even when the tintinnabulation or the tinnitus appears to interfere still we do hear: this poem

[Gloria Frym]

love the idea that this poem is like a vaccine!
Terrific piece, Kit!

[Alan Bernheimer]

This poem knocks it out of the park: going...going...gone!

[David Lehman]

This poem and drawing probably win the award for Best Comments.

[Tom Mandel]

A wonderful poem by a wonderful poet!

[Peter Kearney]

The ancestors, near the end of this fascinating poem, give us the interpretive clue we need: "Put one foot in front of the other." A foot is a means of walking through life, of living this life, but it is also an element of poetic rhythm. This double meaning of foot allows our life to be this poem. It is a life that goes from generation to generation, and can thus be termed immortal. The poet seems to reassure us about this approach through his compressing the two senses of foot in the lovely phrase "this poem of our life on earth."