Patricia Masterman Foreword

Hello everybody,

I would like to thank Paul Kallen, for all his exacting work, in the task of translating my poetry for the Russian readers. He is most vigilant in making sure the poems are as close to the original English meaning as is possible. He pours himself into the work which he loves, and performs it with such devotion, and I am exceedingly grateful to have met him in this large world. He is one of the sweetest persons I have ever had the pleasure of getting to know.

I have loved Russia from afar ever since I first learned of her existence. I love the soul of the Russian people, and feel that I must have a small part of that soul inside myself; for I feel keenly the victories and pains of Russia. It would please me so well, to some day be able to read and write the Russian language, above all others. I thank you for reading my poetry, because poetry is the common link of all people everywhere, and which unites us in our humanity and our hopes and dreams. Poetry belongs to no country; it is the universal tongue of brotherhood. I wish you every blessing, and much future joy through your reading and understanding of poetry. Below is my biography as it appears on the English website.
 
I often compose poems to music, letting the song take me along to places where I did not know I was going until I had already arrived there. Music speaks in secret to the soul, and no man can know beforehand what it is about to say.
 
As a youngster I was infatuated with symbolism, with codes and ciphers, secret writing, foreign languages. I had a few things that I took everywhere with me: My book of poems I’d written in a spiral notebook, and my little book called Codes and Secret Writing, bought for change at the pocket book club that sold bargain books for children in elementary school. My favorite room in the school was the library; where I’d always manage to find the poetry section; even though the majority of the books were impossibly difficult. I often chose a Tennyson book, which always piqued my rabid imagination; The Lady of Shalott; Lady Clara Vere de Vere; The Captain. The one poem that sticks in my mind to this day, with those vivid drawings and the words which I could never forget, was The Wreck of the Hesperus, by Longfellow. I must have read it a thousand times or more.

Sometimes, I will use the words of others to inspire, enlighten further my blitzkrieg of words, imaginings and dreams, and then I pause and wonder... is it poetry? (smile)      

I want to hoard all the most beautiful words
Then save up all the perfect days
Laying them down end to end, and then tiptoe across them
Hoping they will say to you what I can’t

‘There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open.... No artist is pleased. [There is] no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others’
— Martha Graham

‘He who without the Muse’s madness in his soul comes knocking at the door of poesy and thinks that art will make him anything fit to be called a poet, finds that the poetry which he indites in his sober senses is beaten hollow by the poetry of madmen.’
— Plato.

‘There is in every madman a misunderstood genius whose idea, shining in his head, frightened people, and for whom delirium was the only solution to the strangulation that life had prepared for him.’
— Antonin Artaud

‘The only thing that can save the world is the reclaiming of the awareness of the world. That’s what poetry does.’
— Allen Ginsberg

This quote by Mark Twain is a favorite:
‘Dance like nobody’s watching; love like you’ve never been hurt. Sing like nobody’s listening; live like it’s heaven on earth.’

I love all poets; and living poets are treasures that are still around to be enjoyed! W.H. Auden has a great quote which describes a poet very well:
‘A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language.’

If you want to know, what is the poem that I love most, it’s very simple — it’s the one that I’m reading now, the last one I just read, and the one I will next read. Poetry can live forever through us.

Poetry is the most remarkable thing imaginable because, as Percy Bysshe Shelley said, ‘Poetry lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world, and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar.’ And that's when we get our first real look at what is all around us. That is poetry’s miracle and poetry’s magic, for me.

Last but not least, here is my favorite quote, because human beings are my only church and creed:
‘What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!’.
—  William Shakespeare, Hamlet (Act II, Scene II).

One more thing I’d add: If you can’t find that most lovely poem that you have always been searching for, expressing in perfect beauty, and concise words what it is you think that the world needs to hear, perhaps you should sit down and write it yourself. Place within it all the love, ecstasy, and the most fervent joy you can find within yourself. Then you can give it away to everyone who finds your poems; like a hidden gem it will wait for the lucky person who finally comes upon it.

Some things I like to do when I find myself getting in a creativity rut:
1) Write a poem while listening to music and let the music suggests the words (not the lyrics of the song… the music itself).
2) Choose a line from someone else’s poem; so it has a clean slate for you to begin with, so to speak. Then change it slightly and begin to tack your own lines around it to try and flesh out a poem. This can be quite time consuming but really fun to try at least once.
3) When some phrase presents itself to your mind, sit down and list all the possibilities of meaning for this phrase, and what it means to you personally.
4) Here’s a magic spell to free your poetry so it can travel where it needs to: Gather some large leaves fallen from trees, so they aren’t too green to write on, and write some verses, sentences; parts of your poems upon them; then throw them into out your yard and allow them to land where they will, allow the wind to take them up, etc… (be sure you have copies of them, LOL)
            
Patti