Alice and Fractals

I have put together a collage of titles from a writer who I think has interesting titles and made a poem of them. I just found this writer logged on today. Elizabeth.

if i were a lunatic

a party of one,

of lollypops and cyanide

my love and his rifle,

gunpowder...perfume

 

if i were a lunatic,

freedom burning,

lipstick in effigy...

i breath cracked glass,

velvet boxes,

juno and jupiter.

 

if i were a lunatic,

losing petals, poison apples,

libertine lover, ground zero...

the most dangerous drug:

a souls memory.

 

if i were a lunatic,

nameless trainwreck,

dirty secret abyss,

the last lullaby

and then the rain came...

anastasia and angel fog.

 

if i were a lunatic,

cigarettes and whisky,

serrated edges,

satin shoes,

jupiter’s ledge...

 

if i were a lunatic,

red umbrella,

thimbles and freight trains,

the dark exposure,

the night it snowed in the mojave.

libby and jack: sleeping dogs,

and daddy wears dog tags...

Reviews

[Emma Keynes]

I was immediately reminded of Agatha Christie's novels. For me, the first stanza was the best, strongest, and most well-formed. It's an interesting concept and it had me thinking after I read it. Very thought-provoking and overall a well-constructed poem. I liked it. :)

[Calo]

Am happy to hear that. Thankyou Emma.

[Elizabeth]

It hurts to see my life turned into Frankenstein. It makes me ill to see my family, my work, my art chopped up and ruined like this. I have been on this site for 5 years and this is the first time I want to close my profile. My illness, my love, deaths I have endured... I feel violated and I'm literally in tears. I can't make you take it down, obviously. But this is one of the most hurtful things I have ever endured.

[Calo]

Am sorry to hear that, Elizabeth. Although, if your poems are so painful, one wonders why you would choose to publish them in the public domain to begin with?.. What is more, I have not really inflammed any personal situation(s) which may be yours: simply arranged the titles which You chose to headline your own writing. What I have done here is no different to cutting out headlines from a news article to make a collage.

Again, I am sorry for your emotional issues and illness. I hope you can endure and find what you need to deal with them.

[Elizabeth]

I published them on my terms. Seeing it torn apart was another matter. I don't expect you to get it.

[Calo]

I think perhaps the issue you have with what I've done goes beyond simply me and my arrangement of your titles. The issue goes to a much bigger question,..which involves public information, media, and art: where do personal boundaries begin and end when personal business is given to the public? Perhaps another place I can engage in this discussion and explore the implications, both personal and social. For here and now, however, I must defend my artistic licence, and the method used to re-create with words. Surely you recognise my intention was not to hurt you, nor was my intention even personal. My intention was to create something from what is available to me. You, obviously, made your poems (ofwhich I only used your titles) available to me. Not to mention countless other readers...