My Last Ten Poems as a Single Poem

[Aaron Waddell]

absolutely wonderful stuff, Jonathan!

[Jonathan Potter]

Thank you, Aaron

[Richbee]

Historic poetry has now a sense of movement cross states of consciousness to delight the senses. Glad to be in the backseat on your travels. Wonder if there was a post of Burma Shave line’s that kept you awake as you drove.

[Jonathan Potter]

Thank you, Richard

[Dave pearen]

Love you're poetry and since I'm canadian I say to you welcome!

[Jonathan Potter]

Thanks, Dave -- and thank you for the restacks of late

[Mary Pierce]

Thanks for taking us along on this journey.

[Jonathan Potter]

Thank you, Mary

[Sharon Hudson]

Thank you for taking us on this journey, as experienced through your beautiful poetry. I enjoyed the ride!

[Jonathan Potter]

Thank you, Sharon

[Stanley Wotring]

Spectrum ordered!

[Jonathan Potter]

Thanks, Stan

[Kevin Davis]

Quite good. Enjoyed it.

[Jonathan Potter]

Thank you, Kevin

[Brian Funke]

This is a beautiful journey…here’s to endings and new beginnings, and trying to define the boundary between the two. Thanks for pulling this into one reading!

[Jonathan Potter]

Thanks, Brian

[Mark Rico]

You're right: the the poem IS greater than the sum of its parts. Thank you for compiling them for a long thoughtful read. There is a cadence to it all that feels like the slap of tires on a seamed road.

[Jonathan Potter]

Thanks, Mark

[Thomas Rist]

Tremendous, Jonathan. I had read some sections of this before (the second, for example) but it hangs together brilliantly as a modern odyssey. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. 🙂

[Jonathan Potter]

Thank you, Thomas — I appreciate you giving it another look

[Thomas Rist]

My pleasure!

[Paul Wittenberger]

A wonderfully human journey through a geography, both real and imagined, aided by language that rises and sets with the sun, yet flows like a river.

Bravo!

[Jonathan Potter]

Thank you, Paul!

[David MacGregor]

How not to be prepared

For a poem

In ten parts

Whole

How not to be prepared

For a poem

In ten parts

Whole

Jonathan Potter

Bonnie Parker

Such a beautiful poem

You made me cry

You told my whole story

Hey don't think

I'm the Cantos guy

Ezra Pound

Peter Dale Scott

Greatest modern day

American/Canadian

Poet

Found him inspirational

Even with that thing

With Mussolini

I submitted a poem

Called

"Death of Parents"

At age 24

In 1967

My father already

Dead

To Fiddlehead

Then the poetic publisher

Of the universe

Published Margaret Atwood

For example

You go into me

Like a fish

through an eye

A fishhook through a fish's eye

Said Maggie

Cruelly

She has a cruel streak

But I envy her

Upbringing

With Northrup Frye

And Marshall McLuhan

Your poem

Jonathan

Reminding me

Of 1967

When so many

Fled to Canada

From the Vietnam War

After much debate

Fiddlehead rejected my poem

And ultimately

Many years later

I turned

to Hegel

For solace

Or to his mother

Or his father

I don't know which

Father forgive them

For what they must do

I'll forgive them

If you'll forgive

You

I don't know much

About poetry

But I know it

When I sees it

Sometimes I want to escape to America

Where everything is simpler

Barnum and Bailey

Wizard of Oz

Here in Canada

Everything

So complicated

Is it really

Ann with an "e"?

A fish through an eye

My first love

My beautiful American cousin

I was six and she was nine

But the feeling was mutual

I hope and think and feel

Not what you might think

though

The beauty of shared

Split

broken

Heritage

God she was beautiful

North America

So broken

From the Atlantic to the Pacific

No matter what they say

Avoid said Washington

Any intimate connection

With unGodly Europe

And even James Agee

Found the lynching

Of Mussolini

Sort of

Objectionable

Poem cont'd on Substack

[Jonathan Potter]

Thanks for reading it, David

[David MacGregor]

OMG my pleasure. such an enchanting 10 part poem I wasn't ready for it. thank you for your odyssey of America