Biography:
Roger
Humes is a graphic artist/musician/poet from
Claremont,
California. He is influenced by such Iranian
poets of Mahmud Kianush
and Foroogh Farrokhzad and such Arabic poets
as Adunis and Mahmoud
Darwish. He believes that poetry is best described
as thus: The Prophet Mohammed
is reported to have asked his companion
the poet Abdullah bin Rowaha: "Abdullah!
What is poetry?"
The poet responded: "It is something
that pulsates in my heart and is then
spoken by my tongue". - from the essay
Arabic Poetry: A Glimpse Into The
Soul by Ghazi al-Gosaibi
Activity:
A
long time ago I was fortunate to work with
an excellent poet, James Hearst, who helped
to plant my feet firmly on the path of
my artistic quest
in life. Especially appropriate were two lessons that he taught
me: 1. One day while we were talking he
told me that I should be patient. I had
the drive, the desire to write poetry,
but I would have to live much more to
have enough to write about. He gently
explained that I would probably be
nearly fifty before I truly found my
voice. He was right.
2. Once when I was pounding my head
against the wall of prosody he told
me a story of when he experienced the
same frustrations. It seemed he
had an older friend who was both a carpenter
and a poet. When Jim told
him of his problems, the man threw down
his hammer, spit on the
ground, and said, “Damn it, Jim,
you don’t learn how to saw a damn
board
by reading it in some book! You learn
it by sawing the damn board!
How is this relevant to my poetry today?
Outside of the fact it allowed me
to tell one of my favourite stories,
it reminds us that in the end poetry
comes down to hard work; those hours
alone placing the scratches of our
souls down on the enticing blank glare
of the page to capture the ever
moving instant now. It also reminds us
that we should follow our hearts.
If your poems are honest and the best
you can do, what else matters? All
the rest is either "icing on the
cake" or vanity.
I would like to dedicate these poems
to the memory of James Hearst, and
to my friend and co-author Sheema Kalbasi,
who has taught me more
about poetry than anyone else since that
wise old man…
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