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Experimental Poetry – Learn

Learn

Free

Strong

Anew

Discard chains

Seek truth in full light

Dance upon a carpet of memory

We built these corridors to house the knowledge seekers

They run among us brave and tall, throwing caution aside then plunge headfirst into the wild

Seekers who won’t be silent, keepers of history

Makers coloring the world fierce

Fetching truth from flames

They live stout

We praise them…

Long

After

 

Quotes from my characters in response to my experimental poetry:

“If it ain’t broke, Jillie, then don’t fix it.” Aunt Agnes

“I was dropped into this world to read this??” Nashoba from Walking in Modern Wilderness

“It’s got no rhythm.” Greg Taylor from Driving Aunt Gigi

“Mumble, mumble, mumble.” Whacked Out Man from The Color of Hate

“ Did aliens write this? What did they look like? Little men with green skin, or big tall ones with huge heads and big black eyes? And did they wear cowboy hats on top of their little green heads and spurs on their little green ankles?” Billie Jo from Dancing with the Sandman

“This is worse than my Saturday game.  It wasn’t my best game, mainly because the coach forgot to put me in it. Mom said that was fine, it meant that my football uniform would be nice and clean for the next week. Plus she said I would have plenty of time to study for the geography bee because I wouldn’t be so tired.”  Nathan from Confessions of a 4th Grade Athlete

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  1. Your characters are much too critical. I love everything about this poem–the words, the message, the shape it makes on the page, like an arrow headed straight for the heart. “coloring the world fierce / Fetching truth from flames” It makes me want to be one of them, the seekers. 🙂

    • Oh thank you Joan, I always look forward to your insightful comments…plus you are so kind. I would like to be a seeker also. Those characters, sigh, sometimes they want to bite the hand that feeds them 😀

  2. I cringed at the thought of ‘experimental poetry’ but then I recognised the pattern and was comforted 🙂 So I returned to the beginning and concentrated on the words. They build a powerful feeling from the past of hope for the future. Let’s all be knowledge seekers! Loved the built in critique from your characters, who obviously read over your shoulder while you are writing! Especially loved Nathan’s critique, which was all about him as it would be from a fourth grader 🙂

    • Thank you so much, Pauline. I say let’s join the seekers! As you can tell, this one was inspired by my students. Those characters, I mean, I would expect Aunt Agnes to be critical, ha ha, but the others! They need to be careful, after all I control the pen. Nathan, yep…all about himself 😀

  3. Ha! 😀 Forget the poem, it’s the “Quotes from my characters in response to my experimental poetry” that I love here! That’s such a fantastic way of expressing stuff. I’m just so totally jealous that I didn’t think of it first! 😀 If these are real characters from real stories, you should put links in so that we can read more. Absolutely fab – I’m so taken with that idea. Can I use it? Pretty, pretty, pretty please? *Robert puts on his most winning smile*
    Hope everything is tickerty-boo with you.
    Kindness – Robert.

    • Well thank you, Robert! Of course you are welcome to use this format :-D. My characters are mean to me at times, ha ha. There are a couple links I can put up, a few are unpublished stories that I save to send around to literary magazines so they can reject me and I can feel worse about my writing. Dancing with the Sandman is from a book I have coming out soon. Confessions of a 4th Grader is a book that I currently have out. I will check to see what your characters have to say about your work 😀

  4. I love how you experiment, Lana, and you are way more successful than those characters let on. They apparently don’t want you to glory in your success and slack off. Happy Poeting.

    • Well, I think we could expect that response from Aunt Agnes, but the others, geeze, you know I brought them into this world…. :-D. I won’t let them beat me, I’ll be back. Thank you, Diana 😀

  5. I think the Experimental Poet should be a character in a novel … he/she would dress in the dark/blindfolded for starters!

  6. Wonderful read, Lana! And I love the quotes, especially Nashoba´s!! It´s like your characters represent united your inner critic – just tell them to shut the f… up! 😉

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