Yes, I also write poetry. In fact, I cut my teeth on poetry before I
started writing prose. It seemed like a natural progression, to go from
verse to prose - after all I am essentially a story-teller at heart and
short fiction appealed more to my sense of duty to the reader, to tell
it straight. Put the story on the page and cut through the metaphor and
syntax and so I left my poetry in the past for a number of years. I
published a book of poetry back in 1996, titled Journey: the Search for
Something. It was a deadwood limited edition print run of 100 copies,
all of which I managed to sell bar two copies.
I have a site dedicated to my poetry here but I'm hoping to merge the site with this page here later on this year. In the meantime you can read a vast selection of free poetry there until I do so if you wish.
WWW.WILLIAMCOOKPOET.BLOGSPOT.COM
This year I have released
two new collections: Moment of Freedom and Temper of the Tide. Both
collections consist of new and old poems, most of which are of a strong
philosophical nature dealing with universal themes like Good vs Evil and
reflections of Life and Death.
Format:Kindle Edition
Reviewed in the Servante of Darkness Blog
William Cook joins the Modernism School of Poetry. From Wiki: "For the modernists, it was essential to move away from the merely personal towards an intellectual statement that poetry could make about the world." Thus William combines a writing style of prose and poetry to weave an intellectual tapestry, slipping his words in and out of subjective and objective observations, pulling and pushing the reader to envision the completed tapestry while savoring the in's and out's of the words themselves, much as we watch a movie without thinking about the camera work or actor interpretations of the screenplay. As Peter Gabriel points out in The Cinema Show regarding the use of cosmetics: "Concealing to reveal."
Let's consider the "The edge of the night" from MOMENT OF FREEDOM: Selected Poetry. First off, two notes: the title Moment of Freedom is ironic in that the title indirectly states, a lifetime of slavery to the "moment of freedom", much as the term "a cloudless clim" from Lord Byron, must incorporate "cloud" to denote an empty sky: an image to convey emptiness rather than simply using the unpoetic "empty" to state such. Second, the poem's title capitalizes the article but not the noun or prepositional phrase, combining poetic license with standard grammatical rule (namely "The", the first word in the line, must be capitalized). The intellectualizing has begun; William flaunts the world's rules by obeying them as he pleases, this, a moment of freedom.
To discuss William's deliberate misuse of grammar would be folly as it is part of the pursuit to reach the reader. Note also his use of metaphor and litotes. To say simply: "a corpse" is not in his vocabulary; he metaphorically says "dinner" and the diner, death ("the dead!"). Knowledge is life, and life is accepting death: "The darkness comes from knowing nothing is ours, except death...." The first slip into litotes comes from a shift into prose from the metaphor: "...to wake with a sore splitting back from the cold floor in borrowed clothes and eyes..." and with the "borrowed...eyes" shifts back to poetry and metaphor. These are very aesthetic acrobatics.
Furthermore, in the line "To wake up and see the sun if not the glare from beyond" we see additional shifts with the sun at once literal and figurative (as that solar body we find upon waking and as a metaphor for the afterlife). William maintains the balance between shifts throughout the work and ultimately "time" becomes a "cannibal" eating us as we sleep and wake, with varying degrees of metaphoric intents. Thus, the final line of Part II captures this fatality of cannibalism of the self as William becomes the "I" of the poem and states the thesis with the "if", bringing together the personal and the intellectual in Part III: "The science of the mind corroded the body, blinded every mile I ever burnt in this life and the next if there ever were such a thing."
A work in three parts, "The edge of the night" is representative of the poetry throughout MOMENT OF FREEDOM. Think of the book as a complete poem with each individual poem making up the whole. I do not recommend jumping around reading individual works, but rather beginning to end, as one would read James Joyce's Ulysses or William Burroughs' Naked Lunch. It is a work worthy to be mentioned with these modernist authors.
William Cook joins the Modernism School of Poetry. From Wiki: "For the modernists, it was essential to move away from the merely personal towards an intellectual statement that poetry could make about the world." Thus William combines a writing style of prose and poetry to weave an intellectual tapestry, slipping his words in and out of subjective and objective observations, pulling and pushing the reader to envision the completed tapestry while savoring the in's and out's of the words themselves, much as we watch a movie without thinking about the camera work or actor interpretations of the screenplay. As Peter Gabriel points out in The Cinema Show regarding the use of cosmetics: "Concealing to reveal."
Let's consider the "The edge of the night" from MOMENT OF FREEDOM: Selected Poetry. First off, two notes: the title Moment of Freedom is ironic in that the title indirectly states, a lifetime of slavery to the "moment of freedom", much as the term "a cloudless clim" from Lord Byron, must incorporate "cloud" to denote an empty sky: an image to convey emptiness rather than simply using the unpoetic "empty" to state such. Second, the poem's title capitalizes the article but not the noun or prepositional phrase, combining poetic license with standard grammatical rule (namely "The", the first word in the line, must be capitalized). The intellectualizing has begun; William flaunts the world's rules by obeying them as he pleases, this, a moment of freedom.
To discuss William's deliberate misuse of grammar would be folly as it is part of the pursuit to reach the reader. Note also his use of metaphor and litotes. To say simply: "a corpse" is not in his vocabulary; he metaphorically says "dinner" and the diner, death ("the dead!"). Knowledge is life, and life is accepting death: "The darkness comes from knowing nothing is ours, except death...." The first slip into litotes comes from a shift into prose from the metaphor: "...to wake with a sore splitting back from the cold floor in borrowed clothes and eyes..." and with the "borrowed...eyes" shifts back to poetry and metaphor. These are very aesthetic acrobatics.
Furthermore, in the line "To wake up and see the sun if not the glare from beyond" we see additional shifts with the sun at once literal and figurative (as that solar body we find upon waking and as a metaphor for the afterlife). William maintains the balance between shifts throughout the work and ultimately "time" becomes a "cannibal" eating us as we sleep and wake, with varying degrees of metaphoric intents. Thus, the final line of Part II captures this fatality of cannibalism of the self as William becomes the "I" of the poem and states the thesis with the "if", bringing together the personal and the intellectual in Part III: "The science of the mind corroded the body, blinded every mile I ever burnt in this life and the next if there ever were such a thing."
A work in three parts, "The edge of the night" is representative of the poetry throughout MOMENT OF FREEDOM. Think of the book as a complete poem with each individual poem making up the whole. I do not recommend jumping around reading individual works, but rather beginning to end, as one would read James Joyce's Ulysses or William Burroughs' Naked Lunch. It is a work worthy to be mentioned with these modernist authors.
By Donald White
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Prepare for a journey: a path made of words that twists and turns
through a landscape familiar and yet foreign. These poems will make you
feel as if you are racing along the tracks of life and sliding through
this world we take for granted. There are many visions you will see
along the way along with screeching sounds and the howling of steel on
steel. Predatory birds take flight, you are plunged into dark tunnels;
and all along the path stretches forth to the horizon. When your
destination is reached, you will stand laid bare, able to see and be
seen in a kaleidoscope of enlightenment. But will the dawn spit you out,
or will you be trodden underfoot, into the warm earth? Of love and
loss, life and death, much will be revealed in the searing ocean depths.
But will you tread the tempest, or be plunged into the roiling sea?
By Jenn
Format:Kindle Edition
This is another great book of poetry by William Cook. He writes with
so much passion that you know his words come from the heart. There is a
darkness that is never too over bearing and helps to take your mind
right in so you do not read the words you feel them. In this book the
emotions ran high as the poem ran thorough is different parts. There
were feelings of confusion, anger, loss, love and at times contempt for
the world.
Great read and highly recommended for all to read.
Great read and highly recommended for all to read.
By Jenn
Format:Kindle Edition
I have read this author before and I found his writing very passionate
in his novel but the passion that he puts into his poems is a thing of
beauty. While he is able to hold on to the darkness he has within he is
also able to let other emotions seep through and shine. I was captured
and drawn into this book from the first poem and was not able to put it
down until I read every one.
Weather you are a lover of poetry or you are looking for something a little different to break the everyday this collection is well worth the time to read
Weather you are a lover of poetry or you are looking for something a little different to break the everyday this collection is well worth the time to read
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Whether you enjoy poetry or not, you may find yourself inspired by
this particular book of poems. The poems are elegant and eloquent while
revealing real darkness and troubling issues. William has done a great
job in capturing the readers emotion, and empathy.
For a bunch of other links to my poetry on the web please consult the following links:
A poem:
Lest we forget
We forgot the death-white burden
that lay curled explodingly
on the flat line between here & there
& we forgot the gaping pit
of atmosphere that singed the soil
& us that burnt it there above
we forgot the airborne tumours
of ignorance & time that swells
beyond our grasping paws of greed
we forgot the twisting paths
of molecules denied of science
therefore from our perception
we forgot our mortality
in the feast of fire & flood
as we wash our hands with famine
swill it down with cups of blood
we forgot that which we taught
to all the objects of our need
that all that grows beyond its use
holds no measure we shall heed
from alpha to omega
we have joined our ends to end
we have bridged between the islands
drained all wells to poisoned sand
& we forgot our search for new air
is subconscious flight for fear that
courage is the vice of dumb pride
that shakes & billows rage
in every new-found virgin sphere
& we forgot what it was we once loved
& whose back-yard we played & when
the string in the labyrinth would snap
& disappear in burning cloud of dissolving day
& we forgot because we could not remember
because we could not forget.
