recent poem
Somehow santiago's managed to get back online sooner than thought. So by way of celebration here's the most recently completed poem. A combination of blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameters) with two sections of para-rhymed accentual verse with four accents to a line. It's meant to be read fast, with the exception that the accentual lines are slower and in a different rhythm. That's the technical shit anyway. The rest of it I'll let you decide, a lot of it is just having fun with words and all that.
It was written for the MA, which is currently taking a break, because this semester is all about formal verse and being aware of the technicalities of writing poetry. It's a lot less painful than I thought it would be.
City to city
So I’m degenerate and you can’t make
out anything I say - you think that that’s
an accident? The tonguetied trap and cau-
tious crap of trying to speak somebody else,
it might be fine for you to try but God
it slows me down, and I don’t want it ‘less
I choose:
Well Desdemona said I’ve been betrayed
a friend told lies about how I behaved.
He cast doubt on my good reputation
I’ve gotta get me some compensation.
I said I think that’s the least of your worries
you’d better leave town Desdemona and hurry.
And I’ve been tripping in the street my eyes
are sick for something do you want to pass
the time we’ll tell each other lies and burn
the house about our ears. Two thousand eight
was this the year that Nostrodamus said
you better get religion better find
a hope better hide under the stairs
you better buy the butter that’ll see
you through the rapture better quit your job
or they’ll tattoo you on the tongue or was
it eighteen forty two, who knows? The thing
is I don’t wanna be like anybod-
y else except I never like to be
alone. I’m careless aimless couldn’t get
arrested drifting through the city at night.
When Romeo had a sad look in his eye
somebody somewhere would probably die.
He undercooked burgers and poisoned the guests
he’d walk into windows and cut up his chest
stayed up all night fell asleep at the wheel
you just couldn’t tell him it ain’t no big deal.
Get this
it doesn’t matter what you do if no
one pays attention you could walk across
the road and preach your own religion in
the supermarket aisles. Or you could write
your verses up and down the side of bus-
es while they’re waiting in the depots at night.
It was written for the MA, which is currently taking a break, because this semester is all about formal verse and being aware of the technicalities of writing poetry. It's a lot less painful than I thought it would be.
City to city
So I’m degenerate and you can’t make
out anything I say - you think that that’s
an accident? The tonguetied trap and cau-
tious crap of trying to speak somebody else,
it might be fine for you to try but God
it slows me down, and I don’t want it ‘less
I choose:
Well Desdemona said I’ve been betrayed
a friend told lies about how I behaved.
He cast doubt on my good reputation
I’ve gotta get me some compensation.
I said I think that’s the least of your worries
you’d better leave town Desdemona and hurry.
And I’ve been tripping in the street my eyes
are sick for something do you want to pass
the time we’ll tell each other lies and burn
the house about our ears. Two thousand eight
was this the year that Nostrodamus said
you better get religion better find
a hope better hide under the stairs
you better buy the butter that’ll see
you through the rapture better quit your job
or they’ll tattoo you on the tongue or was
it eighteen forty two, who knows? The thing
is I don’t wanna be like anybod-
y else except I never like to be
alone. I’m careless aimless couldn’t get
arrested drifting through the city at night.
When Romeo had a sad look in his eye
somebody somewhere would probably die.
He undercooked burgers and poisoned the guests
he’d walk into windows and cut up his chest
stayed up all night fell asleep at the wheel
you just couldn’t tell him it ain’t no big deal.
Get this
it doesn’t matter what you do if no
one pays attention you could walk across
the road and preach your own religion in
the supermarket aisles. Or you could write
your verses up and down the side of bus-
es while they’re waiting in the depots at night.
Comments
Look out for some notes on Caroline Bergvall - I'm not wholly sure her stuff really works on the page, but I'm writing part of my commentary this semester on her.