So begins the weekend of poetic extravagance. We arrived here at around 7:30, checked in, and had the orientation for the weekend… there are many workshops and events to be had over the next couple days, and I will do my best to keep up with blogging in the meantime. (Follow me on Twitter at @jhpoet for updates from my phone. Modern Life!) Trying not to neglect prompt sites either; this one is for dVerse, which is asking for some “karousel” poems, a form invented by David James. On the trip down, I was very taken with the empty scenery of the Pine Barrens (which, hey, I haven’t been through at night in years), the treetops suggesting a dragon draped over New Jersey. This is just an initial poem to try and get at that impression… probably I can do something better with the image of it. The karousel is an interesting form, but forcing the rhyme without meter still doesn’t really bring out the best of what I want to say, I think. (But there’s a pun in the phrase “long mythologies”, since “long” is Chinese for “dragon”; I’m kind of proud of that.)
Guys, I met Donna Vorreyer tonight and she’s super nice!
Kami
The low trace of Jersey pines
keeps quiet and close to the ground
like a mournful midnight animal.
A thousand thousand bracken needles
breathe salt and break parallel lines.
I believe in the long mythologies
gone broken-toothed and cannibal.
A dragon survives on beetles
while he melts into the muddy sound,
rumpling the horizon with old biologies.
What happens to a storied beast
whose threat paints the lips to wheedle
children into bed, a force of nature crowned
with names, whose mandible
kills like the nightfall watering the east?
He is laid to half a dreamless sleep
while airplane stars wink around
his head. The centuries grow so rational
while he waits to wake, his curl fetal,
his shadow a city skyline deep.
Right back at you! I hope we have a chance to talk this weekend – the schedule is CRAZY, but I know you will write amazing things.
I’ll be at breakfast in the morning! (Are we both typing merrily away in our respective rooms?)
I just got back from the anthology reading, so I am planning on some late night writing – when I am away from home and don’t have to get up at 5 for work, I have a tendency to work late into the night. See you in the morning!
I’ve never been to the US – any of it – but your words gave me a idea of what the part you are describing looks like. I think the form repays perseverance. Hope you have a great weekend of writing and networking.
I’m green with envy about your wonderful weekend.
Your Karousel works beautifully, and has a nice musical metre -apart from the second line in the last stanza . I think that would read better with “his head” on the line above..
I’m jealous of your weekend and envious of your meeting Donna! Will enjoy following :-)
I know NJ by night – and the dragon is such an apt metaphor; you brought truly fresh images with it and the sense of land, country and city compressed by night waiting. Wonderful use of the form. Truly well done.
I’ve never been to NJ but this definitely puts an interesting image in my head. Great imagery, Joseph.
you did such a great job of conjuring up the dragon… as a child, my recurring dream was of a dragon in my neighbor’s back yard, i like your version much better… smiles
Loved the old vibe of this, an archaic terror still out there, where the modern world loses its hold over imagination. Plus, nice to recognize the setting for this fellow Jerseyan.
“A force of nature crowned with names” – favorite line. But then again your final line is very strong. All around, I really enjoyed reading this. :)
Is it strange that my favorite part is the airplane stars winking around his head? Your use of language is vivid and creative :)
Long live long mythologies :)
you create a dragon in whom we can believe. and then you make me realize that we, too, could survive on beetles and nestle in pine needles if that was required. thoughtful, this.