NaPoWriMo 2016 FPR #28 Bridge after Bridge

 

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Today’s Found Poetry Review prompt, #28, comes from Jenni B. Baker, and is quite different and challenging. I am posting only the beginning here to get started on the poem first, but then it is developed into a piece of music. Here’s what Jenni says:

“What are the different ways we can translate poetry into music? What would music look like as a poem? Let’s find out. 

Step One: Find a Source Text

Start by choosing a source text. I recommend working with an e-text from a site like Project Gutenberg, but you can go old school if you’re willing to put in the time. Choose a selection of this text to work with. A few chapters or 8-10,000 words should suffice.

Step Two: Excerpt All of the Words Starting with the letters A, B, C, D, E, F and G.

There are a number of tools available online that can help you with this task. Hop on over to Applied Poetics, then copy and paste your source text into the editor. Under the Oulipian menu, pick “Tautogram,” choose the letter “A” from the dropdown, and click “run” to condense your text to all of the words that start with A. Repeat for letters B, C, D, E, F and G to build your word bank.

Step Three: Craft a Poem

Using only the words from your word bank (those starting with the letters A, B, C, D, E, F and G), craft your poem.

Step Four: Translate the Words of Your Poem Into Notes

To follow this process step by step, go here to the FPR Impromptu #28

Title: The Waste Land http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1321/pg1321.txt

Author: T. S. Eliot, May, 1998  [Etext #1321],      ast Updated: April 23, 2013

POEMS   http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1567/pg1567.txt

  by T. S. ELIOT  New York Alfred A. Knopf 1920

 

 

My poem: followed by my composition. Since I am totally unfamiliar with the tool, the notes and the poem lines do not quite match. Understandable, perhaps, why the poem is a short one!

Bridge after Bridge, comes from Project Gutenberg, two of T.S. Eliot’s books:  The Waste Land and Poems.

Bridge After Bridge 

Bridge

(Wikipedia)

 

 

Above Athens and at Alexandria
death arrives, burning bridge after bridge.

Fire flames bones, children crying, dogs bloody,
gashed deep from cruel and broken glass

bodies falling from above crowd gutters
blackened by fire. Fog filled eyes,

fixed expression,
exquisite fear clasped closer.

 

Carol A. Stephen
April 28, 2016

 

 

 

3 thoughts on “NaPoWriMo 2016 FPR #28 Bridge after Bridge

  1. Pingback: 2016 The Top 12 Viewed Quillfyre Poetry Posts | Quillfyre

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