I agree with Elisabeth, how imaginative, this poem is! You transformed reality within just a few lines. I love the juxtaposition and movement from stanza one to the last stanza. Wonderful.
I wonder if any of us can write what we want, exactly? It feels as though it is just beyond me, most times, as though language is incomplete. Perhaps that's why some poets slam down disjointed words, or artists, seemingly arbitrary colours. Perhaps they are trying to break the constraints of being human.
There is a dragon that lives at the mall, upstairs in the movie theatre. My daughter won't go up the escalator with me, she's terrified of it's fiery breath. I can only imagine the scat produced by a dragon.
Elisabeth, dragon breath smells like burnt pork mixed with fermented something or other and it does take you back to walk into a cloud of it. It has a curious way of holding together in miasmic clouds in the middle of things.
Thank you Ruth, New Colors.
Erin, breaking the constraints is ever a challenge but going for unusual forms only discovers the unknown country within the constraints.
You would not love dragon scat if you ever stepped in it. Just as dragon breath holds together and hangs in the air, the scat does not easily wash or scrape off. Just as dragon breath is pungent, you don't want to break the crust of the scat. It actually combusts under the right disturbance.
Lilith, you have a wise daughter. See above about the scat.
(((Rachel))) It's actually better to be blocked then and write about it now. That way you know what it was but can have your way with it. It's actually even better than that. I am not blocked now nor was I when I wrote the poem or even when I first posted it. However there have been those times when I went years without any creative writing worth a shit.
Some years ago my poetry took on a mythic flavor and I became a character in my own poems, a mage, "the man of the Northern Wall". This apellation is not completely fictional. My middle name is Noordwal, a Dutch term for north wall, though in current Dutch it mainly means north bank as in riverbank. I was told that an ancestor, a Portugese Jew escaping the Inquisition, settled in a small Dutch town and took this name from where he settled, near the north wall of the town. I have thought for a long time that -wal meant wall, think my mother told me that. A linguist might say that my usage is no longer common, is an older usage, but then the Inquisition happened in Portugal a few centuries ago, right around the time the Moors lost control of the Iberian Peninsula and the Jews lost the modest protection given them by Islam. Now I write as this mage, my poetry persona.
Mechanical designer for industry, now retired, once a Bay Area Hippie, went undercover in 1972, I've been writing poetry for years.
Contact: 3topper45@gmail.com
Dragon breath could inspire you perhaps, as long as you step carefully. Terrific poem, Christopher.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Elisabeth, how imaginative, this poem is! You transformed reality within just a few lines. I love the juxtaposition and movement from stanza one to the last stanza. Wonderful.
ReplyDeletebeautifull poeme, so true for all of us
ReplyDeleteI wonder if any of us can write what we want, exactly? It feels as though it is just beyond me, most times, as though language is incomplete. Perhaps that's why some poets slam down disjointed words, or artists, seemingly arbitrary colours. Perhaps they are trying to break the constraints of being human.
ReplyDeleteLove the dragon scat.
xo
erin
There is a dragon that lives at the mall, upstairs in the movie theatre. My daughter won't go up the escalator with me, she's terrified of it's fiery breath. I can only imagine the scat produced by a dragon.
ReplyDeleteLove the song.
Elisabeth, dragon breath smells like burnt pork mixed with fermented something or other and it does take you back to walk into a cloud of it. It has a curious way of holding together in miasmic clouds in the middle of things.
ReplyDeleteThank you Ruth, New Colors.
Erin, breaking the constraints is ever a challenge but going for unusual forms only discovers the unknown country within the constraints.
You would not love dragon scat if you ever stepped in it. Just as dragon breath holds together and hangs in the air, the scat does not easily wash or scrape off. Just as dragon breath is pungent, you don't want to break the crust of the scat. It actually combusts under the right disturbance.
Lilith, you have a wise daughter. See above about the scat.
:D
Are you stuck? Your eloquent comments suggest otherwise. ;)
ReplyDelete(((Rachel)))
ReplyDeleteIt's actually better to be blocked then and write about it now. That way you know what it was but can have your way with it. It's actually even better than that. I am not blocked now nor was I when I wrote the poem or even when I first posted it. However there have been those times when I went years without any creative writing worth a shit.