In our creative writing circle at Street Roots, Peter Salzmann is a star. He is a regular member, appreciated not only for his inspiring poetic responses to our weekly prompts, but also for his gentle creative listening to the poems of others.
He is a regular reader at Street Roots poetry events and distributes copies of his work on request. Despite having started writing poetry only a few years ago, he has amassed about 200 pages of poems on a zip drive.
“It just came to me that I could make rhymes,” he said, “so I got started by studying. I got a book about metrics, and I started expanding on it.”
That active pursuit of knowledge is what drives Peter. The Multnomah County Central Library is Peter’s sanctuary.
“There is so much to learn from the library,” he said with wonder. “I’ve read all of Charles Darwin. I’ve learned that everything is related to everything else. Ants. Bees. Bats. Flowers.” For example, he said, “flowers have different strategies, and those strategies parallel human relationships in interesting ways. You can write about flowers, and your subject – whether you’re writing about love or war or the struggle for survival – is about human beings too, without ever mentioning us.”
Peter is a thinker. He reads deeply in biology, history, theology and mythology. He speaks of connections across time. He observes the world with a rich, ancient kind of understanding.
Peter is a man of imagination, someone who takes in what he reads and what he witnesses of the world around him and translates all into poetry.
“Everyone is walking around with these thoughts and images and emotions,” he said. “Some people create poems. Writing poetry is something that either you have or you don’t.”
Above all, Peter is a dreamer.
“I have pictures in my head,” he said. “I have so many emotions. And I have a terrible time sorting all these out. Poetry helps me sort out what I’m feeling. Through writing poetry, I’ve been able to better understand the Buddha. Darwin. What other people say and feel. I meditate and write about them.
“I get my ideas from creation. I guess writing poetry for me is a kind of prayer.”
Peter has a wide range of readers, from the audiences at various reading events throughout the city, where people are moved to ask for copies of his poems, to those he meets at his Street Roots post at Whole Foods at Northwest Couch Street and 12th Avenue. And most especially, his friends.
“I get to jam my poems out loud to friends,” he said.
“I want critical feedback from my readers,” he said. “That helps me make my poetry better.”
Flowers
by Peter Salzmann
The pigeon’s scintillating
violet crest
the perfectly round
and sensitive breast
were molded
not by nature
or by God above
but by
drama
passion
need and love.
The symmetries
and pretty colors
and all
the sweet scents
of flowers
Arise from the needs
of bushes and trees
for the love
of ants and bees
And with their love
the ants and bees
paint visions
of beauty
on the grass and trees.
Over billions
of generations
a thousand
million mutations
the hungry, needy
little insects
for intricacy and
delicate odor select
a beauty we can share
a beauty that we can see
a message
from half a billion
years away
that they are
just the same
as we.
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