Ah, but sometimes you just know enough to know that you know even somebody carrying on like a drunken sailor is one hell of a sober poet and architect of dreams. Dawn
You are a mystery, my friend. A shaman to some, a lover to others, a man full of interesting thoughts. There is a darker side, isn't there? To me, you are a very intersting puzzle, but like you have said I will never know you truly until I have met you face to face.
Reviewed by Andy Turner (Reader)
Reviewed on March 26, 2005
Some can do that. I find it difficult to try to be someone else, so I just take it or leave, what peeps think.
But since I first read you on TC, in the dim and distant past. One has alway felt an air of the mystic about you.
The most ellusive of any poet. Yet the most admired and respected too.
oUTsTAnding!!!
so real and so true
what people visions may lead them to believe due to
words going across a screen
Excellent reminder, sharp and infusing
It is amazing how different we can appear on paper than we are in reality. We are much more complex in person. Here on the web, we are able to select those parts of ourselves that we wish to share and can easily conceal those we wish to keep hidden. Once eye contact is made, a certain amount of our facade is stripped away and our strengths and weaknesses begin to seep to the surface. So much is learned by inhaling the air that we share and seeing, beyond our fabricated illusions, the other person in all their glory and splendor. Excellent self-observant write, Robert. It is not always easy to turn our self inside out in front of our peers.
Take care,
Sherry
This first-meeting you describe has depth that speaks very clear to all senses. I see...hear and smell...caress...all the fabric of that first meeting . You write of the extravagance of that approach better than any other I've read.
Kudos for a fine poem.
Susan
Since becoming a member of the den I too have been amazed and I guess a little surprized at how my readers view me. I also gave it a lot of thought and could not come to a direct conclusion as to whether they were reading me wrong in my writing or have I been reading myself wrong. Hmmmmnnnn what a paradox. Good write made us all think on it I'm sure.
This is ongoing mystery, and a viewpoint that is direct and revealing. You've given me someting to ponder, and I didn't even know I needed to do just that. This one is a big slice of you... and so many of us... in the computer age. Thanks. - Bill
Robert,
The WWW is a ghostly way of interaction. You can talk to someone for years and never really know them. They can share photos, but who's photos are they really sharing? You can tell them your intermost thoughts..but are they lies?
This is quite the message/warning you are sending here. I've met several that I've become aquainted with online, talked to many on the phone..as a matter of fact I traveled all the way from Tx to Illinois once to meet a wonderful lady that I met online. We stay in touch still today and it's been almost 6 years ago now.
You are right though, you never know somebody until you've actually been face to face and within touching distance..
Grand write Robert.
Watch out for Nordette, you "know" those Jersey girls, they are all alike...LOL! And with regards this poem, I hear ya and agree wholeheartedly...been there too...Ed
... So true. Contact www is a way of baring all, concealing nothing, communicating from the deepest recesses outwards - or it is equally a means of gross deception of self and others. Like the writing of poetry itself, we often don't even understand our OWN intentions when we start out on the attempt to communicate, so I don't thnk anyone can claim to understand truly the heart of another until there is an actual real relationship with direct eye contact, the eye being the lamp of the soul. I am constantly amazed by how much I think that people's hearts can usually be detected through written communication, but it is the emotional traffic through the eyes that speaks the truth... Wonderful patchwork you are bringing together here: quilts where all the pieces mean something special are so precious - and BIG in the American culture, I know. Thanks for stitching this one together! Kate xx
I think each person that reads our poetry develops their own individual perception of who we are. And you are 100% right - no one ever knows us until we have met face to face.
since i am lacking in the social grace dept., this struck a chord with me. i found that writing has allowed me to meet people who otherwise wouldn't want to talk an obnoxious jerk like myself, and form solid friendships. of course, it still doesn't happen often. ;)
I agree with this caveat, that we are poets who share in common the gift of imagery which make all kinds of relationships possible without getting personal and too "real" We can enjoy various friendships without it taking on the more serious face to face personal relationships we share with family and friends. I think we have to learn to keep our priorties in order, and our relatiohships the same. I have several long online realtionships over 9 years that I wouldn't trade for anything. there is an intimate friendship that grows with people who may never meet, it is according to how much of themselves they wish to share, and how much they have in common! It requires being honest, so that you can trust one another.
Well, look, it's your own fault. I'm right here in Jersey. ;-) How's that for starting a rumor? LOL. Just teasing you, Jude. I agree with what you've said. As I wrote in one of my blogs, until you've shared a meal with me and touched my skin, don't assume too much. However, I was speaking of romantic entanglements on that one. It's not that you can't know people through long correspondence overtime, but there's always something amiss until they're close enough to kiss.
And do tell, Jude, which definition of coy did you mean? ;-)
coy adj 1: affectedly modest or shy especially in a playful or provocative way [syn: demure, overmodest] 2: showing marked and often playful or irritating evasiveness or reluctance to make a definite or committing statement; "a politician coy about his intentions" 3: modestly or warily rejecting approaches or overtures; "like a wild young colt, very inquisitive but very coy and not to be easily cajoled"
Robin Ouzman Hislop's poetry is certainly in dialogue with some of the key architects of the 'poetics of indeterminacy' – both the Modernist strands represented by the likes of Beckett and Stein, and the postmodernist strands represented, initially,
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Ron
~Carole
But since I first read you on TC, in the dim and distant past. One has alway felt an air of the mystic about you.
The most ellusive of any poet. Yet the most admired and respected too.
oUTsTAnding!!!
so real and so true
what people visions may lead them to believe due to
words going across a screen
Excellent reminder, sharp and infusing
enjoyed
Take care,
Sherry
Kudos for a fine poem.
Susan
Felix
Love Tinka
The WWW is a ghostly way of interaction. You can talk to someone for years and never really know them. They can share photos, but who's photos are they really sharing? You can tell them your intermost thoughts..but are they lies?
This is quite the message/warning you are sending here. I've met several that I've become aquainted with online, talked to many on the phone..as a matter of fact I traveled all the way from Tx to Illinois once to meet a wonderful lady that I met online. We stay in touch still today and it's been almost 6 years ago now.
You are right though, you never know somebody until you've actually been face to face and within touching distance..
Grand write Robert.
Lisa
etw
it is how i feel about someone i met through his website, we still have not met face to face, but maybe one day.
thanks
ann
Every bit of information we give each other helps to know each other as well as we can without the face to face.
Wonderful. ;) Silver
And do tell, Jude, which definition of coy did you mean? ;-)
coy
adj 1: affectedly modest or shy especially in a playful or provocative way [syn: demure, overmodest] 2: showing marked and often playful or irritating evasiveness or reluctance to make a definite or committing statement; "a politician coy about his intentions" 3: modestly or warily rejecting approaches or overtures; "like a wild young colt, very inquisitive but very coy and not to be easily cajoled"
~~Nordette
"So the tutorial is, we never really know each other
Until we have meet face to face
Until we touch the voice within our eyes
Swapping the fabric adorning our souls"
speaks volumes! :)