Day 18 – Genesises & Apocalypses

New Game today. This one is called Last Line (Gone). Gotta admit, I’m a bit happy about it too. Games which involve titles or other writers’ words are really hard to construct. Far easier to have something less literal as your trigger.

So for this Game, the name kind of says it all. Take the last line of a book, use it as the first line of your poem, then once the poem/pome is complete, remove the first line. Too easy. & a lot more liberating. Different style to many posted this month: written very stream-of-consciously & with minimal editing. I also tried to let the book’s title influence the mood of the poem somehow.

Today’s last line is taken from a crime novel I’m reading ATM, The Bookman’s Wake by John Dunning (second in a very fun short series about Denver cop turned bookseller, Cliff Janeway). & so …

wake

knowing everyone’s about — to be crushed — the weight of stars — tumble down — slash the sky — fall upon the ocean — boil it dry — steam drown the air — fall upon the desert — raise dust — fill lungs — the cough of life

adam was made of earth — eve of his rib — why didn’t god — just make her — of more earth —  surely rib-theft — was unnecessary — & if he only stole one — why aren’t our ribcages — lopsided — many things make no sense — if you question — deeply — some things — just make none

the first — of many apocalypses — a rain of fire — the book of days — the days of the screen — when poets rule the earth — pleasant fantasy — or metaphors gone wild — plato banished poets — fearful of mimesis — imitation is evil — dangerous influence — what would he know —  we try not to laugh

if only he’d banned — reality TV — or rabid evangelists — from his republic — instead — we might take him — more seriously

wakeCROP

LAST LINE: In the yard behind the store i look at the black sky & wonder what books tomorrow will bring. [stanza 1 started by phrase: ‘i look at the black sky’; stanza 2 by: ‘in the yard’; & stanza 3 by: ‘tomorrow will bring.’]

what comes when you have other deadlines

A friend & I are currently doing a trial run for a project we’d like to deliver early next year. This means we are each writing a poem a day (supposedly for all of September, but we’ll see how dry the well gets).  It’s similar to a NaPoWrMo — but a theme has been selected & each poem is an exploration of that theme. We intend to invite other poets, set tasks, & look to publish the best of, etc etc. But I digress.

Six days in, it’s exciting but definitely a very challenging task.

Naturally, given that I have a daily deadline & a set topic — I’m finding all sorts of reasons to write those other poems — NOT AT ALL RELATED TO THE POSSIBLE FUTURE PROJECT TEST RUN!!!! — which have been inside for a few months … or are discovered as I research topics only tangentially related to the topic (if at all).

This is good for those BONUS poems (I must be producing 3  for every 1 project poem each day, & fragments / sketches of others). So it’s nice to have a lot of new first drafts under my belt. [Seriously the application of a curfew makes the fun you have after it has expired soooo much more wonderful!]  But I hope the designated topic starts turning up some gems soon.

This is one of those offcuts. I don’t actually need to say much more about it, as the poem is a little too self-explanatory (hey it’s only a draft) & will tell its story walkin’. The title, sadly, I think is my favourite part 🙂  But it is, at the very least, a quirky piece of information – definitely worth the share.  Thoughts/comments always appreciated.

 

Johannes Goropius Becanus’s Brabantic Obsession

was it:

hubris, naiveté or desperation to be near
a god that patiently does not exist, or at the last
doesn’t actually care enough to intervene

which led 16th century Dutch amateur linguist
Johannes Goropius Becanus to prove
Brabantic was the language spoken in Paradise?

his key theory:

the world’s original language must be its simplest
& given innocent Brabantic has more short words than
Latin, Greek, & Hebrew — viz. it’s older than all three!

corollary theories:

all languages have bitten from the Brabantic tree
Egyptian hieroglyphics represent Brabantic
Eden was located (you guessed it) in the Brabant

oh — did I mention Brabantic was the language
spoken between the Scheldt & Meuse Rivers
in Holland, the region right where Goropius lived?

IKR, coincidence or what!

*****

Tree_of_Knowledge_by_The_Fairywitch

Tree of Knowledge by The-Fairywitch