By this stage of proceedings there are lots of random lines, fragments of poems, copies of poems I’ve read over the past month, research notes, etc. After working on a couple of technically challenging poems that weren’t quite working & feeling decidedly uninspired after several hours successlessness; I decided just to play a game & redact a poem I’d read a couple of weeks ago which had a few interesting lines/images, reducing it down to max of three words per line (per original line), often much less than that. Then subbing words from line 2 down into line 8 & vice versa, then occasionally importing whole new words where it seemed useful, then jiggling lines up or down to help them make a bit more sense. The poem is not quite there & feels a little off but I quite like it even if I’m no 100 per cent what it’s saying in every moment. More work post-NaPoWriMo …

*****

reduction


wing-covered madness
soul halfdrunk
black liquor lures
delirium, hands sound
victory without valour
terrible-eyed sun
won’t allow respite
beseeched, prayer-pestered
manything torn away 
suffering like rocks
the coming storm
hours of prison
cool hands, sweet
light distant shadows
alien phosphorescent uproar 
comfortless last words

*****

Day 28 — TIL goldfish are more musically inclined than me

On Thinking It Out, Let’s Get Loud

goldfish can distinguish 
the music of one 
composer from another 
ooh, let’s get it on

just thinking out loud
perhaps they should use them 
to see if Ed Sheeren really
did rip off Marvin Gaye