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  1. Poem 1: OJ 287
  2. We’re simultaneously Ahab and his whale, you and I. Like the dance between two orbiting black holes, we perpetually cling on verge of devouring one another. We stand by the edge of the abyss watching it stare back. Do we jump? Perhaps someone already pushed us in already and our hubris is about to slam into us. You are the taste of chlorophyll after a schoolmate tripped me; I am the smell of naphthalene and the stale dust of old age.
  3. The black hole, the white whale - whatever monster Nietzsche dreamed up will swallow us whole and spit out our bones.
  4.  
  5. Poem 2: Lot
  6. We sat on the roof of the tallest building in the city so we wouldn’t drown in our tears.
  7. I wrapped you in my shawl. It is cold up in the clouds, so exposed to God’s face.
  8. I’d send you a thousand pigeons and a thousand olive twigs,
  9. But if I did I’d
  10. turn
  11. to
  12. salt.
  13. When the ark sank and I took the only lifeboat, did you stay behind and drown?
  14. Poem 3: Trickster of Barra
  15. Young fisher’s daughter wail’d away at shore
  16. With fear of father’s years and Fate’s keep
  17. For brother cruel had left to die at war
  18. And she with sisters five starved a-weep
  19.  
  20. T’was when she hearken’d from behind a stone
  21. A misted voice that sang of fish and seas
  22. She quite forgot the care and grief of home
  23. And only rose at eventide’s breeze
  24.  
  25. His eyes shone gold like those of clever Fox
  26. His braids as black and long as he was fair
  27. He took a silver comb in iv’ry box
  28. And asked the maid to brush his midnight hair
  29.  
  30. Young fisher’s child now dreams away her ails
  31. She sleeps a gentle sleep beneath the waves
  32.  
  33. Poem 1 is inspired by Dan Pinchbeck’s prose poetry (The Chinese Room 2012). This genre allows for abundant surreal freedom, but, if overdone, risks becoming too obscure to the reader. Judging by my critics’ reception, however, I believe I succeeded in invoking the sense of impending catharsis and unavoidability intended. The poem title refers to a binary black hole system. These powerful celestial bodies twirl precariously around each other, and always end in mutual destruction. I also draw a parallel with Captain Ahab’s self-destructive tendencies (Melville 1851) and the nihilism of Nietzsche (1886). There is also a contrast produced between the colours white and black, illustrative of unhealthy all-or-nothing thinking. My intention is to illustrate my personal experience of the decay of a mutually toxic friendship: The described schoolyard fight and dependence on elderly parents mean to represent how destabilizing such a relationship can be.
  34. Poem 2 is an experiment in minimalism, although it is still very influenced by Pinchbeck. Although not one of my favourite poems, it is my best-received (Watson 2014), both with Coventry colleagues and with Internet readers. I believe this is due to how Biblical tales are seen as obsolete and obscure, and my mixing of them with modern sorrows gives them an identifiable emotion. The two stories referenced in the poem are the destruction of Sodom and the Genesis Flood narrative. I chose these as they both revolve around the destruction of something great but also ultimately flawed, and also because the characters go through much grief in the process. Lines 1-3 illustrate misplaced motherly affection that is dysfunctional and unhealthy, and which undergoes a process of self-judgement. Lines 4-7, which refer how Lot's wife turned to salt when she attempted to return to her burning city (Genesis 19:23), are staggered with one word per line. This is to achieve a paused effect to emphasize a warning of the dangers of attempting to repair a doomed relationship. The final line's words sinking ark and lifeboat were chosen to illustrate the emotions of grieved resignation and desperate self-preservation.
  35. Poem 3 is an attempt to emulate Romantic poetry, specifically Coleridge’s work in Lyrical Ballads (Coleridge and Wordsworth 1798). The narrative presented is inspired from a supposedly real supernatural encounter that took place in the 1950s in Lochranza, Isle of Arran (Castlekirt Arthouse 2006). In the original tale, the merman is actually a deity, and the girl lives and learns to distrust predatory seducers. Structurally, this poem should have been constructed as a ballad instead of a sonnet. This is because Romantic poetry utilizes poetic forms contemporary with the narratives they adopt. Although the story is very recent, it shares many similarities with pre-Christian Celtic tales (Campbell 1911:77), and as such the 16th century sonnet does not feel like an appropriate form. On the other hand, ballads have short lines, suited for narration only if the number of stanzas is not limited, which is not the case in this exercise. Even in the longer sonnet form, the narrative staggers in places due to limited space. This is most evident between stanzas 3 and 4. The archaic semantic choice also appears forced. Overall, I believe this poem is only half-successful despite the many redrafts.
  36. References
  37. Campbell, J. and Henderson, G. (2005) The Celtic Dragon Myth. Edinburgh: John Grant
  38.  
  39. Castlekirt Arthouse (2006) Isle of Arran History [online] available from < http://www.castlekirk.co.uk/history.html> [14 February 2006]
  40.  
  41. Coleridge, S. and Wordsworth, W. (2013) Lyrical Ballads 1789 and 1802 ed. by Stafford, F. Oxford: Oxford University Press
  42.  
  43. Melville, Herman (1851) Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. New York: Harper & Brothers
  44.  
  45. Nelson, T. (ed.) 1994 Holy Bible: The New King James Version. Philadelphia: Pew Library
  46.  
  47. Nietzsche, F. (1886) Jenseits von Gut und Böse: Vorspiel einer Philosophie der Zukunft [Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future]. Leipzig: Druck und Verlag von C. G. Naumann
  48.  
  49. The Chinese Room (2012) Dear Esther [online] available from <http://dear-esther.com/> [14 February 2011]
  50.  
  51. Watson, A. (2014) Untitled. [10 October 2014] available from < http://homerj75.tumblr.com/post/100397069847/lot> [30 October 2014]
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