(EDIT: ok, I used firefox and it worked fine)
I was doing some random searches on Wikipedia when I found an article about "constrained writing," which I found very interesting. I discovered some palindromic poems (they read the same backwards or forwards), and then decided to make my own. I soon realized how difficult a task it would be:
I tried to keep it focused on a specific meaning, but the poem seemed to evolve and develop off its own accord as I worked through it. But that is what I found so interesting about this kind of poetry, and about constrained writing in general: you no longer have complete control over the language. An element of chance is introduced, and this can produce something quite profound.
It took me a good chunk of time, after I had finished the semantics of the poem, to get the punctuation and spacing just right.
Without further ado, here is "Was I Lost," By Alistair McGregor:
Was I lost?
Salt a sea.
R&B de-filed: noise.
Lewder, wont lover,
Mood to bore.
Trap a wolf,
Rats live and teem.
O genome! deliver drone,
True mutter,
Rut.
Drab liar, frail bard,
Turret.
Tu meurt en ordre!*
(Vile demon,) Ego,
Meet DNA.
Evil star, flow apart.
E-Robot doom, revolt now!
Red, we lesion,
De-life'd braes.
At last, Sol I saw.
*"You die in order!"
If anyone wants to try and analyze the poem, please do! I would be really interested to know what meaning you can glean from my palindrome.
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4 comments:
Hmm. Perhaps you should try using a different browser. I use Firefox to post to the blog. Safari often has compatibility problems, and IE is a disaster.
We'll be talking a little bit more about constrained writing when we read the Mullen; that particular work is influenced by the Oulipo.
In a related vein, the Canadian poet Christian Bök's book Eunoia has gotten popular.
Wait a minute, you wrote this poem. All I can say is WOW. That is so cool that you could write something like this. I mean I would NEVER be able to write something so creative. That is so insane.
Wow. Now the only thing I want to know is what is this poem talking about? I read the poem three times, and I still don't understand what it is saying. Some help please...
To reiterate what Shrada just said: WOW!!
To have the ability to craft such a work is amazing. That's incredible.
But the most I could interpret was a that of a land in anarchy, judging from the irony of "Trap a wolf, Rats live and teem" and the mention of "revolt now!" And the "tu meurt en ordre!" came to me as resistance to the governing power, or vice versa. The narrator is lost in the anarchy, but sees it through to the end in "Sol I saw."
Just a quick little analysis I have here. I can't really support my claims too well, but that was my initial reaction. I wonder what others think..
I am sorry but I totally can't read it backwards >>> maybe I don't really understand what you mean by reading it backwards.
But anyway it is actually a really good poem, and I commend you for having the guts to post it online for you entire class to read! Even if I could write like that (which I cannot) I don't think I would have been able to post it.
It is a pretty powerful poem and I am not really sure what to make of it. I don't know what the intended message is but it just seems really powerful, and makes me want to be more individual.... i don't want to die in order. I kind of like disorder to a point. It seems like in the poem, you maybe trying to talk about peer pressure maybe? Like society always follows itself, no one is different, we are as indecipherable among each other as rats.
I don't know I would be totally off, because I didn't really sit down with the poem and take everything into consideration, just what stood out to me.
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