At least among the general public, Charles Bukowski has probably been the most influential American poet since World War II. His exceptionally short lines, his abandonment of rhymes and formal rhythms, and his themes (women, booze, gambling, jadedness, and economic distress) have inspired many — especially young men — to follow his approach. This is true for Taylor Dibbert as well. (He even invokes Bukowski’s approval in one of his poems.)

Every entry in ON THE ROCKS is grounded on drinking, whether he is reflecting on his love life, his divorce, the death of a beloved pet, his Peace Corps experiences, or the ordinary, mundane, events of his life — all of which are celebrated or consoled with one or more of his favorite beverages. 

He is asked in the volume’s first poem why he enjoys writing poetry and his reply is personal before it becomes philosophical:

The search for freedom

The examination of pain

Revisiting old scars and

Processing fresh wounds

Readying myself for the fresh trauma and triumphs ahead

And he closes his mediation with a description of poetry’s effect on poet and receiver alike:

The urgent need to get to the point

And the fact that there is nowhere to hide

This statement is, I believe, the appeal for the Bukowski style. There is little or no metaphor, no fancy language, no flowery flights of fancy, no obscure vocabulary. I’m not sure how truly autobiographical Bukowski is — after all, in his work he refers to himself as Henry Chinaski — but nearly all his poems are relatable to readers who have experienced similar events or feelings; the unapologetic persona seems honest to a fault, using language that is easy to understand and relate to on a personal level.

Dibbert here follows Bukowski’s direction. After reading ON THE ROCKS we should all be able to form a clear opinion of Dibbert’s personality, his character, and his history in an empathetic way. 

Taylor Dibbert’s On the Rocks is available here.

Nocturne No. 93 

Li Po wrote something like this:


‘This river town could be in a painting . . .’ 

And here in the West, I think: so could Guernica.

 — J.T. Whitehead

 *

Nocturne No. 94 

Buson wrote something like this:


‘No inshore whales are in my sight, & Night falls on the seas.’ 

& here I thought it was the fishing industry. 

 — J.T. Whitehead

*

Nocturne No. 95 

Buson wrote something like this: ‘Utter aloneness: 

this is another great pleasure in an Autumnal dusk . . .’ 

Fine. But I would still miss my lover.

 — J.T. Whitehead

*

Nocturne No. 96 

I feel some small joy knowing when I see the Moon


that the Sun, like a smiling blond baby, kisses the graves


of those Haiku Masters. Small, like an egg, an atom, or a gem. 

— J.T. Whitehead

The Color Purple

I choose a rich purple shade

bearing a substantive connection to my ancestry

the African deities who gave birth to our humanity!

it is said to evoke visions of nobility, royalty, wisdom

creativity, spirituality, mystery  magicality

a colorful synthesis of soothing blue and spirited red!

becking forth recollections of powerful deities 

it’s paler shades suggest romantic allusions

and a state of peaceful composure

while its darker shades  shift

to suggest a state of dejection and spiritual elevation

its rich darker shade signify wealth luxury grandeur  power

but it is double sided in that it can betoken  melancholy 

and frustration when applied superfluously 

I suspect for some men it can denote

some feminine qualities… rightfully regulating

the dominant notions of masculinity

while its violet shade can symbolize passion, ambition

creativity and mourning in some aspects of cultural identity

it can accentuates one’s individuality in a crowd

replete with antiquated notions of conformity 

its blending of red and blue can birth

deliberate intrinsic serenity and stability

it is a celebrated historical scarcity

purple pigment extracted from seal mollusks

enhanced its costly rarity attainable only to the aristocracy…

But now the color purple has been reclaimed

and integrated into our everyday commonality

and individuality attainable to anyone who

deems themselves fit for royalty!–

Jacques Fleury is a Boston Globe featured Haitian American Poet, Educator, Author of four books and literary arts student at Harvard University online. His latest publication “You Are Enough: The Journey to Accepting Your Authentic Self” & other titles are available at all Boston Public Libraries, the University of Massachusetts Healey Library, University of Wyoming, Askews and Holts Library Services in the United Kingdom, The Harvard Book Store, The Grolier Poetry Bookshop, Amazon etc… He has been published in prestigious publications such as Spirit of Change Magazine, Wilderness House Literary Review, Muddy River Poetry Review, Litterateur Redefining World anthologies out of India, Poets Reading the News, the Cornell University Press anthology Class Lives: Stories from Our Economic Divide, Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene among others…Visit him at:  http://www.authorsden.com/jacquesfleury.-

How Social Media Affects Young People

Nowadays, it is difficult to imagine life without social media. They have become an integral part of our lives: some people use them to stay informed about the news, others to communicate with friends, and some to gain knowledge. Especially among young people, the role of social media is enormous.

However, their impact can vary from person to person — for some, they bring benefits, while for others, they become a reason for wasting time. For me personally, social media brings more benefits. Because I try to use them properly.

For example, through the “Ibrat Farzandlari” app, I do various exercises to learn German, English, and other foreign languages. This app helps me improve my vocabulary and make my speech more fluent. In addition, through the “Mutolaa” app, I read new books and stories every day. Such platforms awaken in me a love for reading and an interest in books.

However, unfortunately, not all my peers use social media correctly. Some spend most of their time watching useless or even harmful content. This reduces their attention to studying and negatively affects their mood. Some, on the other hand, become too immersed in the virtual world and gradually distance themselves from real-life relationships. In my opinion, the problem is not in social media itself, but in us, the youth.

Because we are the ones who choose how to use them. If we use them to gain knowledge, learn languages, and stay informed about new events, they will be useful. On the contrary, if we use them to waste time, compare ourselves with others, or follow meaningless posts, they will harm us.

Social media, in fact, is a great opportunity for young people to expand their thinking, express themselves, and work on self-improvement. The important thing is to know how to use them in the right way. In conclusion, social media can be both useful and harmful — it depends on how we use them. I believe that every young person should learn to use social media in a way that brings benefit. Because every opportunity gives a real result only when it is used correctly.

MOTHER NATURE

Another of my ideas concerns farms, but in a different way. This involves promoting an ancestral cultivation technique, which the Celts first used in Europe, but which has been largely forgotten since the Middle Ages: animal fallows.

As their name suggests, animal fallows, also known as grassy meadows or green meadows, are an agricultural land management technique that involves using fields left fallow for cultivation to graze livestock, particularly sheep or cattle.

Livestock grazing on fallow land helps renew it and fertilizes it by living there, so that soon, the meadows used in this way will be of even better quality than those left as only fallow. We gain from it: in natural fertilizers, in biodiversity, in soil mobility, for the soil is turned over by the animals, and from the livestock’s point of view, of course, in fodder and land usable for pasture. This is what our ancestors did. As I told you, it has been forgotten, and yet, having seen it done on land belonging to my family in Ariège, in France, I can guarantee that the results are surprisingly successful.

The principle of setting aside cultivated land is universal, even mandatory for farmers in many places, and yet these animal fallows I’m talking about are almost never used anywhere. So, this is good advice I want to offer farmers, which will help them revive their fields, which we know are tired, often impoverished by modern farming techniques and the various chemicals we use today.

While I’m talking about farms, I’d like to take this opportunity to tell you how much good I think about permaculture. Permaculture is a farming technique invented in Japan in the 1970s. It consists, primarily for market gardening, of using nature itself and the combinations of plants, including flowers, and crop seedlings, as well as the composition of the soil, to ensure an abundant harvest of vegetables and fruits or cereals, without using any fertilizers or pesticides, just letting nature take its course, so to speak, from what we have sown.

A permaculture food plot, for example, greatly contributes to the biodiversity of a local ecosystem. It’s particularly good for bees and pollinators. I recommend it to every farmer!

And, still talking about nature, I wanted to discuss with you an idea that is particularly close to my heart: the fruit forest.

Here we are again very close to permaculture, with this concept that designates a forest, perhaps a woodland, like so many in our country and around the world, where humans, through their labor to plant or graft fruit trees, allow wild fruits to be harvested in all seasons.

Let me explain: it is very easy to plant fruit tree seedlings in a natural wooded or forest environment, or to graft them onto host trees in the same locations, so that they will bear fruit in the desired season. By varying the species, for example, this can allow an entire forest to be abundant in fruit all year round.

Obviously, it will take a lot of human labor at the outset to achieve this result, a bit like maintaining a full-scale orchard. However, natural rhythms, and the wildlife that inhabits the area where we work, will help farmers and allow the penetration and even expansion of crops in the environment. Once the goal of a fruit-bearing forest is achieved, what benefits will there not be for its owners, first of all, to have an abundance of fruits that continue to grow by themselves almost in all seasons, for their own consumption, of course, or for market gardening, or even for their livestock, or even for the views of the game that this will bring to their land! What benefits will there not be for local biodiversity, for the flourishing of the flora, and of other tree species in particular, thanks to the insects and birds that it will bring, and finally for all the wildlife that will see a new pantry! The entire forest will benefit. This idea is close to my heart. It is particularly easy to envisage in France, where we have so many forests, hedgerows, and so on. And it will be equally so in all temperate wooded areas.

No doubt, it will seem a little utopian, then, for me to call on you to create a “forest of abundance” in this way. That being said, once again, the realization of this idea is very easy, locally at least. Anyone with a wood could achieve it in a few years of work. So, for a result that is understandably so profitable, we might as well get started and do it, right? I wanted to advise this to you!

Crooked be the road that leads to Ithaca. For hubris has blinded me, like Polyphemus. I grasp for answers but feel men in sheep’s clothing— Who was I to question Poseidon’s teachings?

To live porcine in gilded halls did not make me a king, For beauty ages, unlike Calypso’s graces—it wasn’t meant for me. Leaving lotus petals like broken dreams, I embrace reality. Seven years I have sailed—will three more make prophecy?

I accept that my crooked path may lead to distant shores. Hopefully my Penelope will be there when I land; If she’s not, I’ll still have become a wiser, older man.