war war war

[WolfLarsen]

A Poem that Drank the Planets Out of the Sky
By
Wolf Larsen


As the world marches forward into world war three I write a poem, as the land opens its legs to the falling nuclear missiles I make love to you on a huge white page of loudness (the words touching and touching our nakedness like a roar), and we proudly hold up our baby to sacrifice for the approaching mushroom clouds and we smile and smile like shipwrecks at each other and the composers smile like hundreds of monsters sleeping on your tongue and the composers laugh like every fantastic nightmare you have ever touched, in contemporary baroque I unite six billion voices singing their own eulogy, on beautiful sunny days all the flowers are reciting the last words of the human race

Copyright 2004 by Wolf Larsen

[ktd222]

You have some vivid imagery in this poem, WolfLarsen. I like how the images you initially presented parallel each other: the missile’s impact with the land carries over well with the scene of “you and I” making love. Even the effect of the two scenes parallel, I liked that. But then the following image is one scene, even though it contains two opposing images(the result of each is of the above individual scenes) colliding together. Then further down where you describe the “you,” and the composers as being “monsters sleeping on the tongue” gives me a sense of images overlapping into one “fantastic nightmare.” It seems to me the only one aware of this connection is the speaker, since he is the one composing the poem. Nicely done, Wolf.:)

[WolfLarsen]

Thank you KTD. That was very insightful!

Cheers!

Wolf Larsen

[blp]

I like it too. For reasons I can't quite articulate, I'd like to see it written out with line breaks, free verse poem style. Seems like it might suit it. Or like the contrast with its rather declarative style might work well.

I like 'a huge white page of loudness'.

Other than that, did you know that an early draft of Beckett's Happy Days attributed the characters' predicament to 'an aberrant rocket'? At that point in the manuscript, Beckett left a note to himself in the margin: 'Vaguen'. Always worth thinking about I feel.

[shadowy girl]

I really liked it, to phelosiphy in it....but it's nice ........
but
"like hundreds of monsters sleeping on your tongue "
that I didn't understand

[Adolescent09]

I've never understood any of this stuff :(. I must be way too shallow. I'll try broadening my perspectives of different prose, but for some reason I can never seem to fathom your drastically colliding imagery. I guess it's great though.

[WolfLarsen]

Thank you Mr./Ms 09, Shadowy, and blp.

Yes blp - you would like to see it in line breaks - you and the majority - would like to see my poems in line breaks. I'm certainly not the first to write without line breaks, what I find is that for me writing without line breaks increases the spontaneity and energy of the poem. It gushes unto the page in the same manner that it races across the synapses in my head.

Shadoway - worry not please - there's nothing to understand in the traditional sense - just think of the poem as a river of imagery flowing past you.

Mr./Ms 09 said: "I've never understood any of this stuff . I must be way too shallow. I'll try broadening my perspectives of different prose, but for some reason I can never seem to fathom your drastically colliding imagery. I guess it's great though."

Well - I think we've all read something and felt the same way that 09 feels here. We need more variety in literature - that in fact the more variety we have in styles of literature the more likely there will be something in literature for everyone. There will be something for 09 to enjoy reading, something different for me to enjoy reading - and if each writer has his own way of writing - then everyone will be more excited by literature because there will be something for everyone. This is one of the reasons I believe there is no correct way of writing.


Cheers!

Wolf Larsen

[blp]

Oh Wolf, you rebel you. No, you're certainly not the first to write without line breaks. There's Rimbaud, Max Jacob, John Ashbery, numerous others and, er, me, on this forum, twice. Please note, I did not say, I would like to see all poems written with line breaks. I said I thought it might suit this one.

[SleepyWitch]

hey old Wolf, i actually like this one. i agree about the line spacing, it would look better and also go together with the poems content better.
in my opinion, this little piece contains several clearly identifiable units of meaning.. it's not so much of a river of imagery flowing past you but a series (pairs) of contrasting images.

[shadowy girl]

WolfLarsen >> but I think that every word that was ever written must have been written for a certain reason...

[dyingflame]

whooo hoo!! exactly my own mind about poetry and literature! the images were great and this is a poem based on imagery; of course I must come to terms with it actually being prose (in the old sense hehe) well I guess one could say it is poetic prose, or a poem with prose versification- but yes, I agree that although free verse would suit it, this way, wolf, the images rush and flow into each other rather like the sleet of fire following an atomic impact! great!! I need to see more of your poems, this is the first I've read of yours

[WolfLarsen]

Thank you Dying Flame, Shadowy Girl, Sleepywitch, and blp.

Blp - I guess that I misunderstood you. And thank you for sharing with us two of just some of the greats (Rimbaud, Max Jacob) who have used the paragraph form. I think poetry could be written in any form on anything. It need not just been written left to right or up and down on a page. Poetry can (and probably has been) written in circles. And why not write poetry in swerving curving lines all over everything in your path? (Unfortunately you'd have problems with the police.) At times, I imagine everything is composed of words - I imagine that everything is exploding with words. Sometimes I feel the ground under my feet is completely made of words and the words are moving moving and waves of words are crashing into everything and comets of words are attacking the earth - I imagine a big bang of words and phrases in a poem circling around each other like protons and neutrons or whatever circling around an atom's center.

Sleepywitch - We will just have to disagree on the best format of this poem. Very few (less than five percent) of my poems are written in the traditional line break format. I find it oppressive enough that because of just endless realities I write from left to right on a page or a word processor. I'd rather write poetry in swirling lines all over the naked bodies of the Human Race and all over the buildings and the sidewalks and the streets. I'd like to write a word on the side of each car and see poetry created as the traffic goes around the city - I'd like to paint poetry all over the Human Race.

And thank you Dying Flame. I liked these words of yours: "the images rush and flow into each other rather like the sleet of fire following an atomic impact."

Which reminds me - something that influences my writing is that I believe we might possibly be living at the end of the Human Race. Who knows when the war-mongering rulers of the world will start World War 3?

Cheers!

Wolf Larsen

[blp]

Well, hey, Wolf, don't just talk about it. You're not stuck with the word processor. You could scribble on walls, write on canvases, write on your own body and that of anyone else who's willing, buy a few toy cars and play around with them etc.

[dyingflame]

I believe we might possibly be living at the end of the Human Race


would you believe me if I said "me too," and for quite some time now?

[WolfLarsen]

Thank you blp - you are right! It’s time to write poetry on everything and everybody!

And dying flame - yes - it's a dangerous time. With these war-mongering nutcases with huge arsenals of nuclear weapons how much time does the Human Race have? Twenty years? Thirty? A hundred?

Oh boy.