02 October, 2014

A Poem of Everyday Longing

In Descending Order

4.

a

d
i
s
h

o
f

v
i
n
d
a
l
o
o

a
n
d

s
a
f
f
r
o
n

r
i
c
e




3.

h
e
r

p
a
l
e

t
h
i
g
h
s

i
n

a
s
y
m
m
e
t
r
i
c
a
l

m
o
t
i
o
n

2.

t
h
e

s
l
a
t
e

o
f

d
i
m
i
n
i
s
h
i
n
g

d
a
y
l
i
g
h
t






1.

e
v
e
r
y
t
h
i
n
g

e
l
s
e

i

c
a
n
n
o
t

r
e
a
c
h

t
o

t
o
u
c
h


* * * * *

I wrote “Descending Order” some years ago — a format experiment I was quite pleased with — and, after receiving a stack of editors’ rejection letters, decided that its unorthodox orientation might’ve played a part in the difficulty of getting it published. That’s the comfortable excuse, anyway. There’s always the possibility that it’s simply not a successful poem. I prefer to think that its four (vertical) lines impart something of the wide language of desire, even if the voice speaking isn’t one that the reader already knows.

2 comments:

  1. Did you send it to Beloit Poetry Journal?

    They just did an issue with experimental forms like this; minimalism and texture in language. They published authors in English, French, German, and Spanish. (If I remember correctly and I believe I do).

    Some of their issues are posted as PDFs online.

    http://www.bpj.org/PDF/V17N1.pdf#zoom=100&page=18

    http://www.bpj.org (the homepage of their website).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My favorite from that issue they did is Claus Bremer's piece and a close second lead is Ian Hamilton Finlay's work (which, in the French, I could understand easiest).

      Delete

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