Friday, March 19, 2010

Starling

After Broken Wings, by Kahlil Gibran.





b.............
ro..........
ken.......
wings.......
broken.......
wingsbr.......
okenwing.......
sbrokenwi.......
ngsbrokenw.......
ingsbrokenw........

....................ingsbroken
....................wingsbrok
.....................enwingsb
.....................rokenwi
.....................ngsbro
.....................kenwi
....................ngsb
.................rok
..............en
..........w

8 comments:

Jon said...

This shape is a part of a song I've had in mind for a long time... if you're curious, check out a post and the comments from years ago... it's not so different, really, but somehow it feels like a different universe of writing, and I wonder where that me went...


http://waxinggrasshopper.blogspot.com/2008/06/sometimes-silence-speaks-louder-than.html

Jenny said...

Very interesting that you mention the song because the thing that struck me immediately here was the audio effects. Like sound waves, gradually changing. The second stanza is a bit like a tornado too, I think. Great piece and now I will take a look at that post.

About the different universe of writing... I also have a tendency to change writing style now and then... Guess I see writing as an organic process, where metamorphoses take place. Impossible to plan the next turn.

human being said...

.


a cosmic license to break the wings of silence
=================================

once i broke a win-
g

to adjust it, i read a my-
ri
ad of books

some a-
live
some even didn't know how to sin-
g

people prescribed some me-
di
cine

professors suggested a new com-
po
si
tion

all this took a lon-
g time

i learned a lot but for-
got all about f-
light

one day a star-
ling perched on my windowsill mi-
mi
cking the wind's forgotten son-
g
:

broooooo
ken
wiiiiiiiiiin
gs
soooooooooooooa
r
hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh
er

theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
re's
nooooooooooooooooooooooo
siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
lence
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
ver
just some aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaare
deaf...


.


;)

Megan Duffy said...

This works very well, Jon.

Anders said...

I like how the visuals interchange with my feeling of sound from this poem.

Francis Scudellari said...

It's an interesting contradiction for me... I tend to record everything I write on my blog, and yet I revisit it very rarely. It's there, but I don't want to see it :). I struggle with that question of whether writing is a vain pursuit all the time, but I think that's the case only when it's one-sided rather than part of a conversation.

Jon said...

Jenny,

Thanks! And I'm glad to be occupying the same universe as you and the other poets on Flowers of Sulfur!

human being,

this is an amazing fragmented poem you've created. i love the way the lines move and the extension of the sounds as the poem goes on... kind of reminds me of a bird in flight, swooping and twisting and turning in the air... thanks for this!

Megan,

Glad you got something out of this... the two words on their own weren't the trouble, nor was the shape... the trouble was finding the hex color and filling in all the dots so they'd disappear...

Ande,

Thanks man! the sound sometimes rises to fall, eh?

Francis,

Isn't this always the way... knowing there's something futile about art, but not having a choice about going on... i suppose the goal might be to fail as well as possible...

;)

thanks for your insight. it's appreciated as always...

Claudette Cohen said...

Fun and full of pathos at the same time.