Mr Poe where have you been walking?
alleyways and amid the roses
beyond the inn
Mr Poe you lie
we have seen you in the liquor houses
day and night you drink though you know
it will kill you
I swear on my mother's pure white soul
that it is another
who resembles me
who wishes to destroy me and
what is left of my reputation
Who then?
I do not know his name
but I will find him out
Mr Poe you lie
there is no one
who resembles you
____
This is not a poem, really, but a bit of dialog from a screenplay I was working on in early 2005 for a class. Then in 2006, Matthew Pearl published The Poe Shadow, so I abandoned the work. Unfortunately, I have a lot of work that I've held on to just long enough for somebody else to publish it first.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Ants
The robot arm hovered over the nest, steadied itself against the blast of hot wind, then lowered with tedious care to the ground. The operator, Kell, took a breath and released a few parasilicon beads into the entrance. Counted to ten. Released a few more.
Evidenced by tiny puffs of dust, the foragers were moving around, "sniffing" the beads, likely, picking up the scouts' chemical signatures artfully applied by Kell in the coolness of the lab. In a moment, they would swarm out of the nest, heading in all directions. None would return until they had found something edible. The foragers never made this decision on their own, as individuals. It was a decision made by chemicals, timing, and numbers. Gordon ants on this planet behaved exactly as harvester ants did on Earth.
He waited. His prediction was rewarded by the sudden emergence of dozens of foragers, their huge mandibles clacking loudly enough for Kell to hear.
Gratified, he sat back against the worn seat of the lab, tapped the results with his fingerDroid, and took a thinkbreak.
Overhead, the sun shimmered. One more day and he would be freed from this assignment. He thought of Yuye Wauk, safe in his village. He thought of the desert valley that separated Yuye from the interlopers who had at first built only isolated huts, nonthreatening, merely interesting. But their numbers had soon multiplied. Yuye, of course, had welcomed them, taught them, even took one to wife. Kell did not trust them, with their blunt teeth and droning voices, wingless and weakened versions of the Salixeum. Their temples had already fallen into the sand.
The robot rattled as if pelted by stones. Kell looked up to see foragers tapping energetically on the windscreen. He cursed. Obviously, the worn seals had leaked his scent and the foragers had linked onto it as a source of food. He increased the tesla feed by a notch, and the foragers leapt off the screen. He wouldn't wait to see if they were angry yet, when nothing would stop them from finding, shredding, and carting his body back to the nest. With a nearly human shiver, the robot lifted, shaking off the last of the foragers, and Kell headed back to BaseCamp for the last time.
____
Listen to Deborah Gordon talking about ant behavior:
http://www.ted.com/talks/deborah_gordon_digs_ants.html
Evidenced by tiny puffs of dust, the foragers were moving around, "sniffing" the beads, likely, picking up the scouts' chemical signatures artfully applied by Kell in the coolness of the lab. In a moment, they would swarm out of the nest, heading in all directions. None would return until they had found something edible. The foragers never made this decision on their own, as individuals. It was a decision made by chemicals, timing, and numbers. Gordon ants on this planet behaved exactly as harvester ants did on Earth.
He waited. His prediction was rewarded by the sudden emergence of dozens of foragers, their huge mandibles clacking loudly enough for Kell to hear.
Gratified, he sat back against the worn seat of the lab, tapped the results with his fingerDroid, and took a thinkbreak.
Overhead, the sun shimmered. One more day and he would be freed from this assignment. He thought of Yuye Wauk, safe in his village. He thought of the desert valley that separated Yuye from the interlopers who had at first built only isolated huts, nonthreatening, merely interesting. But their numbers had soon multiplied. Yuye, of course, had welcomed them, taught them, even took one to wife. Kell did not trust them, with their blunt teeth and droning voices, wingless and weakened versions of the Salixeum. Their temples had already fallen into the sand.
The robot rattled as if pelted by stones. Kell looked up to see foragers tapping energetically on the windscreen. He cursed. Obviously, the worn seals had leaked his scent and the foragers had linked onto it as a source of food. He increased the tesla feed by a notch, and the foragers leapt off the screen. He wouldn't wait to see if they were angry yet, when nothing would stop them from finding, shredding, and carting his body back to the nest. With a nearly human shiver, the robot lifted, shaking off the last of the foragers, and Kell headed back to BaseCamp for the last time.
____
Listen to Deborah Gordon talking about ant behavior:
http://www.ted.com/talks/deborah_gordon_digs_ants.html
Monday, December 27, 2010
answered prayer
smoke carries prayer up
in north and south america
wind carries prayer up
with ribbons loosed from trees
east, north, west, south
from untamed colors and bells deep and gleaming
go prayers up
fervent wishes, frank desire, hope,
from everywhere in the human world
to the burning sun, the moon that never turns its face,
to stars, gas giants, the black echo
of heaven
stone, earth, cloud, within
the answered prayer (
culture-changer, world-changer,
messenger sent to chastise and renew)
alarms the faithful
seemingly arrested: falsely burdened with earthly sins,
shattered, imprisoned, hanged,
bastinadoed, bladed, chained, exiled
and still the fearful pray,
give their god another chance
to get it right
while all around the very atoms glow
and endless day hath ended endless night
_____
"Thou beholdest, O my God, how every bone in my body soundeth like a pipe with the music of Thine inspiration, revealing the signs of Thy oneness and the clear tokens of Thy unity." (Baha'u'llah, Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah, p. 111)
in north and south america
wind carries prayer up
with ribbons loosed from trees
east, north, west, south
from untamed colors and bells deep and gleaming
go prayers up
fervent wishes, frank desire, hope,
from everywhere in the human world
to the burning sun, the moon that never turns its face,
to stars, gas giants, the black echo
of heaven
stone, earth, cloud, within
the answered prayer (
culture-changer, world-changer,
messenger sent to chastise and renew)
alarms the faithful
seemingly arrested: falsely burdened with earthly sins,
shattered, imprisoned, hanged,
bastinadoed, bladed, chained, exiled
and still the fearful pray,
give their god another chance
to get it right
while all around the very atoms glow
and endless day hath ended endless night
_____
"Thou beholdest, O my God, how every bone in my body soundeth like a pipe with the music of Thine inspiration, revealing the signs of Thy oneness and the clear tokens of Thy unity." (Baha'u'llah, Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah, p. 111)
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
bamboo sestina
There is no bamboo sestina.
But surely there is bamboo.
Somewhere
And surely there is a sestina.
This is not a sestina.
It is more like haiku without regard to syllables or length.
Which is not haiku.
Although surely there is haiku.
Somewhere.
And.
If a word weir catches fish made of syllables.
A catch
May
Float
Float
On a bamboo sestina.
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