SF0 / libriscraft / Placepoem

15 + 10 points

Placepoem by Libris Craft

July 13th, 2012 1:37 PM

INSTRUCTIONS: Write a poem about your favorite place, by only assembling text you find in that place.

1. Go to the place you want to write a poem about.
2. Find some text. E.g. street signs, advertising posters, graffiti, garbage etc.
3. Document the text you find - take pictures, or just note down what you find and where.
4. Cut and paste until you have a poem.
5. Post it here, along with documentation of the texts and the place.

Rules: You may insert three words which are your own (that you have not found on the location).

(Disclaimer: This task is inspired by the textopia research project, textopia.org . If you find it interesting, please put your poem there as well (and a sound recording of it), and a special place in heaven will be reserved for you!)

My family home has a staircase with a built in bookcase. The books have never (in my lifetime) been removed from the shelves, except for dusting. But I love the landing with the bookcase. It faces a giant mirror, which reflected myself back to me kindly.

I decided to compose a poem using only the titles of the books on the shelf. ( Words in italics are the ones which I added).

Toward the morning,
a man called Cervantes
told of two paths:
then and now.

"Today is here,"
the townsmen of Ruskin*
said.

The night flight back to Venice
works in the dust.
And vagabonds study
books of Proserpina, Ariadne,
Claudius, the Complete Poems of Robert Frost.

Seven ethics
and a crown of wild olives,
I'll walk by
saints and strangers, modern painters,
the delight makers:
The noble prize of
stones from sea to sea.

* Ruskin: small town named after John Ruskin, the English philosopher. A real place!

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