"To make one thing stand for another is the fundamental activity of consciousness."
- Susan Griffin
My poet friends have been laughing at me lately because I've been saying I hate metaphor. How can you be a poet and hate metaphor?? You really can't, because metaphor is how we think, how we make consciousness. I've been tired of tired metaphors, though, my own and those of other poets. It's tricky to make new metaphors, because it requires new thought, new excursions into psyche. I find myself working over the old metaphors until they no longer have savor for me. So, somewhere along the line, new kinds of consciousness and new metaphors have to come into being. Partly writing, and partly waiting, is how this basic activity of consciousness arrives.
About Me
- Kathleen Jesme
- My books: Albedo, Ahsahta Press, 2014. Meridian: Tupelo Press, Winner of the Snowbound Chapbook Prize, 2012. The Plum-Stone Game: Ahsahta Press, 2009. Motherhouse: Pleiades Press, 2005. Winner of the Lena-Miles Wever Todd Poetry Prize; finalist for the National Poetry Series; nominated for the Poets' Prize. Fire Eater: University of Tampa Press, 2003.