Robert Anthony Gibbons

The Life Poetic

“One cannot be too scrupulous, too sincere, too

Submissive before nature, but one ought to be more

Or less master of one’s model.” -Cezanne

My poems haunt me. Oftentimes I am writing alone in front of the Brooklyn Public Library on a solitary wooden table that is provided for people like. I use it as my makeshift office, but also a way to commune with nature. There is no strict time period for me. I am responsible in my poetic way, but before the pandemic I had to learn how to honor time and still create. It was hard for poets that are used to a certain level of engagement. Most of the gig positions I did have were lost in the midst of global evolution. There is something to be said about Shelley's statement, “ that poets are the unacknowledged legislators.” I have always been in deep thought about this. I want the world to be fair and just. I want the world to be equal and secure, but the poet as a prognosticator knows that is not. So I set off on the long journey home. To find another way to create and master my discipline.

So I am a man of nature. My poems takes nature as a model. It's a sort of sequence and consequence. Being a openly queer African-American poet, the world I have created for myself has been my own journey. It has not always been secure but friendly. The journey does not immediately show itself in a clear vision. I am still on that long road to the interior. The life poetic has given some sort of access into the public audience. I have published in hundreds of journals and magazines. I want you to see my book as a roadmap. I want you you see my book not as declaration but as resuscitation. So I am still living in Brooklyn for now. For now its a faith walk into Prospect Park or the Botanical Gardens. I love the museums, too. I have an affinity to art as a whole.