At Last
The inspiration seems to have been found. I have the opening paragraph of the first new prose poem. I've been studying the prose poem -- form -- and perhaps this new thing isn't a prose poem at all but merely a regular poem written out in prose form. I am writing the thing in pure poetic voice, thus:
I breathe into the artificial air, where pseudo-stars blink at me from afar, their false light trapped into these spools, my eyes. Within my eyes I hold a fractured world, where toys of blood and bone engage in play. I see it all within these spools, my eyes, and breathe into the artificial air. My breath, escaping, makes a little sound that eddies in the manufactured sky in which I watch the frolic of false stars that catch the lifeless light of one dead moon. That lunar husk -- so gross and gray and grim -- engages the mechanics of my eyes, those viscid spools that blink into false light, the dimming light of imitation stars.
The entire thing could easily be written out:
I breathe into the artificial air
Where pseudo-stars blink at me from afar (above?)
Their false light trapped into these spools, my eyes.
I'm wondering if "above" would be a better choice, to match the "b" sounds of "breathe" and "blink" -- or should I leave it "afar" to match the "f" sound of "artiFicial" and "from." Oy, decisions, decisions. And I should probably make "those viscid spools" "these viscid spools" to match the other usages of "these spools" when speaking of mine orbs. I love this kind of stuff, this working out of a new piece of writing, finding the expression of it that seems exactly right.
The piece is mostly inspir'd by Lovecraft's prose poem, "Nyarlathotep." I'm hoping to make almost all of the new prose poems things that are inspired by Lovecraft but not necessarily "Lovecraftian." I do have one idea for a prose poem called "Postcard from Prague," inspired by a postcard that Maryanne K. Snyder sent from Prague of a Jewish cemetery in snow.
I alo want to write, for this new book, a major Sesqua Valley novelette set in the time when Imagist poetry was in vogue, around 1917 (the year in which HPL returned to writing fiction), with one of my characters based on the poet who sign'd herself H. D., and another character based on Lovecraft's friend, Robert H. Barlow. I have a vague idea about plot but have yet to do any serious outline or dreaming of the tale. I love -- so much -- the mental phase I find myself in when I begin working on a new book, when I watch the book take form within my imagination, and then when it surprises me once I actually begin to write it and it takes me to those places I never suspected. This is the thing that makes life absolutely worth living -- this Literary life!
I breathe into the artificial air, where pseudo-stars blink at me from afar, their false light trapped into these spools, my eyes. Within my eyes I hold a fractured world, where toys of blood and bone engage in play. I see it all within these spools, my eyes, and breathe into the artificial air. My breath, escaping, makes a little sound that eddies in the manufactured sky in which I watch the frolic of false stars that catch the lifeless light of one dead moon. That lunar husk -- so gross and gray and grim -- engages the mechanics of my eyes, those viscid spools that blink into false light, the dimming light of imitation stars.
The entire thing could easily be written out:
I breathe into the artificial air
Where pseudo-stars blink at me from afar (above?)
Their false light trapped into these spools, my eyes.
I'm wondering if "above" would be a better choice, to match the "b" sounds of "breathe" and "blink" -- or should I leave it "afar" to match the "f" sound of "artiFicial" and "from." Oy, decisions, decisions. And I should probably make "those viscid spools" "these viscid spools" to match the other usages of "these spools" when speaking of mine orbs. I love this kind of stuff, this working out of a new piece of writing, finding the expression of it that seems exactly right.
The piece is mostly inspir'd by Lovecraft's prose poem, "Nyarlathotep." I'm hoping to make almost all of the new prose poems things that are inspired by Lovecraft but not necessarily "Lovecraftian." I do have one idea for a prose poem called "Postcard from Prague," inspired by a postcard that Maryanne K. Snyder sent from Prague of a Jewish cemetery in snow.
I alo want to write, for this new book, a major Sesqua Valley novelette set in the time when Imagist poetry was in vogue, around 1917 (the year in which HPL returned to writing fiction), with one of my characters based on the poet who sign'd herself H. D., and another character based on Lovecraft's friend, Robert H. Barlow. I have a vague idea about plot but have yet to do any serious outline or dreaming of the tale. I love -- so much -- the mental phase I find myself in when I begin working on a new book, when I watch the book take form within my imagination, and then when it surprises me once I actually begin to write it and it takes me to those places I never suspected. This is the thing that makes life absolutely worth living -- this Literary life!
I believe the world needs a whole lot more poetry -- Lovecraftian and otherwise. I applaud your efforts. Personally, as a reader, I prefer your second example with the line broken away from the paragraphical format.
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