Black ink and sunbeams poetry

To my valued readers,

This afternoon my father visited me at work. Over coffee, we caught up and, as one tends to do given sufficient time and caffeine, found ourselves discussing those things of great personal value. In todays case, our topic of conversation was this book to be, one of the two great passions delineating my twenties and the grand ambition of an otherwise reticent man.

Poetry, like many art forms, is limited in its expression only by the imagination of the author and the conventions of the era in which the author finds themselves anchored. My own work, being heavily inspired by the lyrical monosyllabism of twentieth century, eastern European surrealists attempts capture the urgent poignancy of universal human agency and existential expression in its good, bad and honest.

One potential pitfall of this style is also its greatest strength, it, being a tendency for cryptic, hermetic presentation. As such, there should exist in every poem, a shared human experience that resonates, from the poem, intimately, with you, the reader. Ideally, as a purist and, one could make a strong argument, fanatical adherent to language in general and poetry specifically, I, the author, as well as my intention behind each piece becomes irrelevant the moment you open the poem and it becomes what it needs to be for you.

While this poetic ideal remains my guiding motivation; I have received feedback that there exists a desire for some type of authorial commentary or deconstruction of my more cryptic poems so that a reader could see behind the metaphorical curtain and better understand the story behind each poem. My primary concern is that this unfolding of the poem could reduce it to a static, impersonal thing rather than a conduit for shared existential experience.

Therefore, particularly for those of you who have followed the growth of this creative project from its earliest stages, please share your preferences and feedback as I experiment with more notes and supporting content for my poems over the next several weeks!

As always, thank you so much for your continued interest and support of my dream,

-Jesse Cooper