Daguerreotypes Of People, Place, And Time

This is a compilation of selected poems written over a span of fifty years or more. They vary in form and meter and consist of lyrics, place-poems, dramatic monologues, and philosophical musings. They are meant to represent one expression of the metaphorical impulse--a force seen by this writer as the promulgator of everything existing on the planet and in our known universe.Metaphor, in other words, is an expression of what I call survival drive, itself a metaphor. Its earliest origins can be observed in the actions of particles moving about in a quantum universe where like particles are attracted to each other outside and within the purview of time. This attraction, this expression of comparison, can be seen as the earliest and most rudimentary form of awareness. Furthermore, it should be noted, these particles are compelled to search out workable combinations, and the "click" that occurs when one is found is tantamount to the creation of metaphor and what, in humans, is called the "A-Ha!" response. Through the process of evolution--and it is important to recognize that in nature time is as exigent as it choses to be--life forms developed with varying degrees of awareness, culminating, ultimately, in the self-concept of Homo sapiens and the production of language--itself a metaphor based, initially, on physical survival drive. Over time, this drive to survive came to be applied to our feelings of emotional well being, what psychologists call self-concept. Poems (and all forms of art) are, in the final analysis, the highest expression of survival drive, this being so because they are not constrained to be about eating and "getting and spending."It has been said that no one reads poetry anymore. If that is so, it´s a sad commentary on human affairs. The combination of feeling and seeing (the gasp of understanding) that constitutes genuine poetry represents the apogee of humaness. Our feet may walk on soil, but our minds can parse the stars! Come read with me and be alive!