wet books

[MystyrMystyry]

The wind it blows all over the place

Sending leaves in all directions

And drizzle through the open window

Onto the piled paperbacks - a waterlogged

Catalog of half-reads

I re-enter the room from the distraction

And hasten for some superwipes

From the pantry (where I keep them)

Tissues, toilet paper, hankies, t-shirts

And stuff them all between the pages

To absorb the unwelcome moisture

I hope all the leafs don't end up

Crinkled and wrinkly - but I know they shall

Because paper wasn't designed to reshape

Flatly or neatly

So I wonder is it better to let them

Dry out naturally (whatever that means)

By putting bricks on them?

But there's so much airborne condensation

That it may take months - though I guess

It's a better alternative than a lifetime of

Twisted reading and bent out of shape books

I'll try it and wait, and in the interim

Borrow copies from the warm dry library

[everyadventure]

Hm. If those books are a lost cause, you could always make a Novel Wreath (http://www.flickr.com/photos/59721031@N02/5552533659/)like mine ;)

[MystyrMystyry]

Please tell me they were Mills and Boon, or something the world won't miss!

[everyadventure]

Um. Actually I committed a grave sin, as it was CS Lewis' "The Problem of Pain."

But the book was already falling apart beforehand... and I read it first!

[MystyrMystyry]

Actually that's not the worst sin - at an art college exhibition I went to someone had glued about five hundred paperbacks together to form a fat column and then sculpted out chunks to create a fairly average figure of a mermaid. Though I had my camera with me I just couldn't bring myself to take a picture

[deryk]

Some of the best books I've ever read were destroyed by the weather just from overuse - I'm a shameless over-reader. It's always a sad feeling, even knowing you can find another copy (in most cases), to lose the physical manifestation of something you've invested so much time and love in. That isn't even to mention the loss of the best-kept marginalia and important notes. I'm not a person of many possessions but of many hard-texts. This poem really stabs at my heart.

[Bar22do]

Love your poem, as well as your love for books. It reads as if you'd almost give your life to preserve them!! And I myself had the misfortune of seeing a crocodile made of papier mâché (which itself was prepared from paperbaks...)
Best to you, Bar

[MystyrMystyry]

Thanks Bar22do - Oh the pain! the crocodile should've eaten the perpetrators!

[qimissung]

I hate when my books get wet. It's very hard to fix them. I loved this-what an unusual idea for a poem. I think it worked well, although it is a teensy bit prosy.

[MystyrMystyry]

Thanks Qimi

I agree it is prosy - I abandoned the rhyme about the eighth line, then went back and eradicated all rhyme to that point, but didn't fix it up properly (as I may have done if I'd kept with the rhyme - or at least it may have been less noticeable)

[MystyrMystyry]

I didn't think it would have such an effect on anyone deryk - chin up!

[qimissung]

I rarely use end rhymes myself, I'm just not good at it, but rhythm I can do, at least I think I can, and I think it's more to that that I am referring. Maybe one day you'll want to change it, but I always feel that it's best if it comes from within you.

I really like meditations on daily life.

[MystyrMystyry]

Yeah, I find that having a basic idea of the rhyme scheme beforehand (preparing with the rhyming words first, finding a context for them second, rewriting it to fit third) works, but only if there's a strong idea to make it worth doing. I have quite a few meditational bits, but you really don't want to read 'em ;) (they don't rhyme, and they're not particularly good)

[hillwalker]

Yeah, I find that having a basic idea of the rhyme scheme beforehand (preparing with the rhyming words first, finding a context for them second, rewriting it to fit third) works, but only if there's a strong idea to make it worth doing.


Mhmm. Seems a rather bizarre way of creating poetry - but we all have our funny little ways I suppose.

H

[qimissung]

Yes, unusual; it can be done well, I think. Check this out on our own website:

http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45293

And for more info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouts-Rim%C3%A9s

[MystyrMystyry]

Thanks for your comment Hill, but I wasn't referring to it being the one way.

By the method cited in the brackets I meant in order to write relatively fast and to a vague deadline, not that it's my only way.

I've found you can't really beat having all the time in the world to rewrite something over and over until it becomes as perfect as you can possibly make it.

I wish I had all the time in the world to do this, but I don't, so therefore adopting a formula is the next best thing (if the alternative is to not start at all)

Thanks for the links Qimi - I'll read them more thoroughly later (when I have time)

*hugs Qimi*

[MystyrMystyry]

Right-e-o - I just gave myself some time (the Wiki wasn't very long and didn't contain links, as I first thought)

The rhymes in the game were short and breezy - good game by the way, I'll add that to the subscribed threads I think

Thanks again :)

[qimissung]

You are so welcome. I've actually written a few that I was quite proud of. Maybe I'll try it again myself in the next week or so.

[MystyrMystyry]

Please do!