{"id":4016,"date":"2012-10-16T15:29:13","date_gmt":"2012-10-16T15:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/?p=4016"},"modified":"2012-10-16T15:29:13","modified_gmt":"2012-10-16T15:29:13","slug":"dave-bonta-ode-to-scythes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/2012\/10\/dave-bonta-ode-to-scythes\/","title":{"rendered":"Dave Bonta “Ode to Scythes”"},"content":{"rendered":"

I met Dave Bonta<\/strong> at the AWP Conference in March.\u00a0 He was working the Motion Poems booth, which was next to my table.\u00a0 We swapped books and talked a little poetry.\u00a0 We became FB friends, and I got to learn more about him through his posts, most of which are about Via Negativa<\/a><\/strong>, a site I encourage you to investigate. \u00a0Dave describes it as a \u201cpersonal web log with delusions of grandeur,\u201d and also as a \u201cm\u00e9lange\u201d in which he posts poems, photos, essays and videos, the occasional satire and audio podcasts.\u00a0\u00a0 Via Negativa<\/strong>, he writes, \u201c is part of a mini network of sites, including The Morning Porch<\/a><\/strong>, a site devoted to poetry films and videopoetry called Moving Poems<\/a><\/strong> (and its associated discussion blog), and Woodrat Photoblog<\/a><\/strong>, which is a also a haiku blog, updated a couple of times a month.<\/p>\n

Dave\u2019s chapbook, \u201cOdes to Tools\u201d<\/strong> is a collection of 25 poems. It is available from Phoenicia Publishing<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0 I thought \u201cOde to Scythes\u201d was appropriate for the season. This past July 24th on Via Negativa<\/strong><\/a>, Dave revisited scythes, so to speak, and wrote about Martin Hardy, who once lived in the house Dave occupies now, and also a video<\/a><\/strong> of \u201cOde to Scythes\u201d made by a British blogger and Buddhist priest Kaspalita.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ode to Scythes<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The scythes are emissaries<\/p>\n

from a country<\/p>\n

that no longer exists.<\/p>\n

They have only each other<\/p>\n

to converse with now<\/p>\n

that their translator<\/p>\n

the whetstone went off<\/p>\n

& joined the knives.<\/p>\n

They huddle together<\/p>\n

in corners, nested esses<\/p>\n

long in the tooth<\/p>\n

but still as fluid<\/p>\n

as the staff of Moses<\/p>\n

at the exact moment<\/p>\n

it shifted into an asp.<\/p>\n

Do you remember,<\/p>\n

they murmur, how<\/p>\n

the crowds<\/p>\n

would lose their heads<\/p>\n

& stand like soldiers,<\/p>\n

stiff, when the wind<\/p>\n

moved through?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a9 Dave Bonta<\/strong>,\u00a0 2008<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dave Bonta<\/strong> is a poet, editor and web publisher from Plummer\u2019s Hollow, which is on the eastern edge of western Pennsylvania.\u00a0 He is the managing editor of qarrtsiluni<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, an online literary magazine. In addition to “Odes to Tools,” Dave also has produced a collection of cartoons, Words on the Street<\/em><\/strong>, from Bauble Tree Books<\/a>. Breakdown: Banjo Poems<\/em><\/strong> is forthcoming by Seven Kitchens Press<\/a>. Read more about Dave Bonta at his website<\/a><\/strong>. \u00a0THANKS<\/strong> Dave!<\/p>\n

\"Picture\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I met Dave Bonta at the AWP Conference in March.\u00a0 He was working the Motion Poems booth, which was next to my table.\u00a0 We swapped books and talked a little poetry.\u00a0 We became FB friends, and I got to learn more about him through his posts, most of which are about Via Negativa, a site […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1319,1317,1300,12,1309,1301,1304,1308,1306,1307,1312,13,20,1314,1310,1318,7,16,1303,1311,1302,32,1313,1305,1315],"class_list":{"0":"post-4016","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-guest-posts","7":"tag-bauble-tree-books","8":"tag-breakdown-banjo-poems","9":"tag-dave-bonta","10":"tag-ellen-wade-beals","11":"tag-kaspalita","12":"tag-motion-poems","13":"tag-moving-poems","14":"tag-ode-to-scythes","15":"tag-ode-to-tools","16":"tag-phoenicia-publishing","17":"tag-plummers-hollow","18":"tag-poetry","19":"tag-publication","20":"tag-qarrtsiluni","21":"tag-scythes","22":"tag-seven-kitchens-press","23":"tag-solace","24":"tag-solace-in-so-many-words","25":"tag-the-morning-porch","26":"tag-tools","27":"tag-via-negative","28":"tag-weighed-words","29":"tag-western-pennsylvania","30":"tag-woodrat-photohaiku","31":"tag-words-on-the-street","32":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4016"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4086,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4016\/revisions\/4086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}