Poetry of a different kind

Keith,

I am so impressed by how you very deliberately and carefully hone and perfect your subject before painting. I have previously noticed that your accompanying poetry is really really good --- so now I can see that your careful and elaborate planning has both your poetry and painting hit the bull's-eye.

I use poetry in the exact opposite way -- -- poetry captures my throwaway and byproduct thoughts. I have been so over trained as a mathematician and businessman that I dismiss and  disregard the nuances and feelings and milieu of my emotional life. Poetry is my attempt to recapture what an overly focused and overly trained intellect has come to ignore.

One of the great lessons in industry is that often the byproduct is the real treasure -- the steam byproduct of the fire in a steam engine provides the energy, the esprit de corps byproduct of a competitive team is often the essence of the team, the popular mandate byproduct of Obama's campaign is turning out to be his strength after his winning election....

Likewise the byproducts of my overly active mathematical imagination is more the essence of me then the mathematical result. And it was all discarded  --- until my fascination with poetry and the expression of these fleeting insights.

So the signature of my poetry is it's spontaneity, surprise, nuance .... for me it's a gift of the erstwhile unseen.

Tom