Plan was …
(1)
Walked this morning
to the quarry,
over the crocodile track,
but took the wrong path.
(There was another way down
but that was steep
and the long grass
hid holes.)
(2)
the sign
was wrong
was down
I headed
up
The prompt for Weekly Scribblings #51 at Poets and Storytellers United is to revisit any Weekly Scribblings prompt from the past year. I like to play with found poems, so that's the one I chose (#43).
I am friends on facebook with several in this community, including Marja, and recently enjoyed some wonderful photos she posted with this text:
'Walked this morning to the quarry, over the crocodile track, Kennedys Bush track, to sign of the Bell Bird. Plan was to go down into Governors Bay but took the wrong path. There was another way down but that was steep and the long grass hid some holes. Not good for the clumsy so I headed for Sign of the Kiwi where William picked me up.'
Her words, too, captured my imagination. In them I found both of the above poems, which I see as variations on a theme. The method of composition was somewhere in between the classic found poem, which reproduces a fragment of text verbatim (or at least very closely) and the classic erasure, which uses widely separated words and phrases to create something with an entirely different meaning from the original.
I love it My little adventure in a poem. I feel honoured
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you approve, Marja!
DeleteThis is so weird! Not the poem, the poem is perfect to for the beginning of the year, for moving forward, for anyone who doesn't believe Fate is made of the status quo, for me... What's weird is that I just finished writing my piece for the first Weekly Scribblings of the year, and we happen to have chosen the same old prompt. I guess it's not really weird, just really nice.
ReplyDeleteHappiest New Year (again), my beloved Rosemary.
Great minds and all that! Looking forward to another happy year of working like-mindedly with you and Rommy at P&SU.
DeleteI gotta get out more. But until I do... thanks for taking me along, R.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, R. (I love my initial and often sign with it, which means some people address me by it. Thought for a minute that was what you were doing – then I realised, it's your initial too and you also sign with it, lol.)
DeleteMaybe the moral of the story is: Pay no attention to the roadside signs, just follow your heart.
ReplyDeleteA great message to derive!
DeleteFound poems i am finding more and more interesting.
ReplyDeleteNice one
Happy New Year
Much✨live
Yes, they can get you like that. Happy New Year to you too, Gillena.
DeleteYou have such a gift for taking an ordinary moment and making it extraordinary. I applaud that gift.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Bev. This time I believe Marja deserves a lot of the credit too.
Delete🖤❤️🖤
ReplyDeleteRosemary, this was a fine fun little ditty. You did good finding these words which said what you wanted to say. And I could relate. During basic training in the U.S. Army one of our harassment exercises was to find our way back to the camp at night, using our compass and a small flashlight. In trying to do well in this training bit, I fell into a hole that I could not see the top or climb out of. Evidently there was no one around to help me. Finally a round up little group cam by in a Jeep and I was able to attract their attention.
ReplyDelete..
Found poems are great to explore and play with, Rosemary, and I love what you did with Marja’s words – two for one! I often find myself somewhere in between found and erasure. Great title too.
ReplyDeleteI love this! Even the text is fascinating to me, what with a "crocodile track" and "sign of the kiwi." My imagination goes so many places with those!
ReplyDeleteI have to ask, what is a crocodile track? I hope it was more whimsically named than an actual track used by crocodiles.
ReplyDeleteWe'll have to ask Marja! One possibility is a track for walking single file (which has sometimes been called walking in a crocodile formation – why, I don't know!) but I rather doubt it was that.
DeleteHaha The crocodile track is just a track in my neighbourhood where I walk quite a lot. A stone alongside the track looks like a crocodile so that's how it got it's name
DeleteWonderful remix of Marja's poem. No matter
ReplyDeletewhich way you go, you're still walking.