I Remember The Smell Of My Father
Blood Ties: Fatherhood - Part 2
Public poetry, again. A gift for my dad I share with all of you so you can know a bit about him — know that I am glad he is my father.
Some of my poems, especially my Blood Ties series about specific family members and situations, may have very little value to others; no wide appeal that can be applied to your own lives. That is by choice, of course, but it is also only partially true. There are two points I’ve come up with why you might like such niche work.
Hopefully the form, technique, metaphors, references, allusions, and so on, might be ‘good’ and evoke something.1
Beyond that, and more hopefully, reading such personal poems might inspire you to write (poetically or not) about your own life and relationships. Perhaps you might share what you have written with someone, and perhaps it is about them. Either way, it is likely to deepen your relationships with others and yourself. You might even experience The Divine.
I am purposely attempting to stretch a muscle I have long found interesting: Folk Poetry. What I mean by this is what I learned in one of my early classes in undergrad studying Human Geography2. The foundational difference between Folk and Pop genres of music is not really found in tone, rhythm, key, or tempo; it is in the lyrical subject matter. Folk music (and therefore writing/poetry) was for the folks you knew. People in your close communities who know the references in your songs: 16th Street, Annie with the brown hair, Silver-Daisy Creek, the legend of Porker Thompson, etc. Popular writing on the other hand, is about ‘you’ ‘her’ ‘my’ ‘boys’ ‘girls’ ‘the ocean’ ‘the highway’, with no specificity. It can be applied to anyone and garner wide acclaim.
Of course, there isn’t really a value judgement here, as much of my own work will, I hope, be interesting to all and about topics that transcend locality.
But for now, I once again move gradually outward from myself in a new series.3 My Blood Ties (Siblings, She Who Made Me, Fatherhood) series comes to an end for now. I’m sure I’ll keep adding poems to all the series (An Unfolding, Divine Study) I have going, but I’m excited about what’s coming next. I hope that you will each enjoy my upcoming very local poems about the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. I believe
is accepting submissions on the theme of locality, of being Rooted in place. I’m looking forward to all this ‘folk’ poetry of places I know nothing about!Thanks for reading — let me know what you think.
The form of this particular poem was dictated by syllable count without consideration of rhyme or metre. An interesting experiment to separate them, and helpful for the sharpening of both tools.
The study of human in relation to place/space. Is this almost everything ever and too big of a subject to be contained in one BA? Yes.
I started with the internal, my emotions. Moved on to nuclear family, and now my local neighbourhood and city.
Thanks for sharing this, Nick; so glad you have such great memories of your father.
I’m getting more into the folk side of things as well lately—not poetry per se but stories and myths. This is just me perhaps, but considering the way things have been going, I’m less inclined toward stories and forms of expression that are inseparable from our economy. I think I need to be listening elsewhere for awhile.
Folk poetry. I like the distinction of that, nice concept!