all roads lead to robert creeley

well, that may be a touch of hyperbole, however, i do get spiritual, intellectual, emotional, life-style nourishment from the poetry of robert creeley.  this past week i've been on, what is for me, a predictable, but necessary self-interrogation of the necessary uselessness of poetry.  i've been corresponding with a fellow traveler & great friend in the arts who took me to task for my roundness.  meaning that i always seem to question myself as a poet & the utility of poetry particularly in our recent mad days.  & i usually answer myself that for me poetry is a life-saving, soul gathering, practice.  so why continue to beat myself up?  i don't have a clear answer for that.  my friend calls my self-questioning a koan.  perhaps it is & so with a koan the adept continues to repeat it until it unlocks its mysteries.  & still the koan can stay mysterious.  & yet, i've never doubted myself as a poet or the  necessity of poetry of my own life.  i suspect i will keep repeating my koan until i become a boddhisattva.  right??? at any rate, every few years i return to the poetry of robert creeley who is something of a lodestar of mine.  i read him very early.  creeley's minimal poetics of plain speech resonated with my own stripped down poetics.  & yet, his poems are as mysterious as a koan.  plus, creeley adapts to & adopts technology, like digital technology, & is not afraid of newer forms of communication.  i watched VHS tapes by the Lannan Foundation of creeley reading.  he adapted to email & websites.  indeed, the best BAP series, in my humble opinion, was edited by creeley in 2004 which was one of the first anthologies of its kind that included electronic journals in addition to traditional paper lit. mags.  & now, in my hour of need, i find that there are dozens of robert creeley videos on youtube including this one where the wonderful poet describes in his own illimitable way that the greatness of poetry is inscribed by its own uselessness.  we all may not agree with creeley's analysis of the uselessness of poetry but for me, at this moment, it is a much needed analgesic for what ails me.