Oh, beautiful half-fledged
thoughts of mine
peeping out
from the mother-wings,
mad as a hare,
and should be in chains
Category: Altered Poems
Ella Wheeler Wilcox’s Inner Goth Girl
I started working on this book months ago, then got sidetracked when Harried died. I’ve started working on it again. I haven’t scanned any of the new pages yet, but have been photographing the poems as I finish them. Mostly so that when a cat inevitably scatters the pieces, I know how to put them back together.
Forget all these dead
still
ever and always
Who sit down, uninvited
And make a nightmare
of solitude.
This is what the carcass of the donor book looks like. I mostly took a photo of it because book abuse makes people cry, and I’m a total jerk. But honestly, I think I’m making it better! Ella Wheeler Wilcox is just plain awful, so I like to believe that helping her get in touch with her inner goth girl is adding value. Right?
A Tiny Poem
I see the stars above me,
world on world
ghosts
come out of the gloom.
We rise up
We rise up tangled
with the night.
Down shadowy lanes,
across Strange distances
We have come
ready for the fight.
Winnowing
The World Is Round
collage and altered poem in handmade book
3 3/4 x 5 1/2 inches
The world is round,
and time is fleet
And my purpose is not
what it ought to be.
collage and altered poem in handmade book
3 3/4 x 5 1/2 inches
I lie down weeping
among the weeds
and hug the world
until it stings.
The image in the first spread would not fit, so I had to cut out one child. I added her to the second spread.
Swallowed By the Sea
collage and altered poem in handmade book
3 3/4 x 5 1/2 inches
High and far,
from a distant star,
In its hurrying race
through unknown space,
those little troubles
and little needs,
are overcome
and swallowed by the sea.
Trying Harder to Suck Less
I have been a terrible bad blogger, but I have been working on things. Arty things, even. I just haven’t been very motivated to scan them, so that I could share. And then when I did get motivated, I was a dork and scanned them at the default dpi, which was crappy, crappy, crappy, and I was too lazy to redo them. Today I shall do better, though!
These are more reworkings of Ella Wheeler Wilcox’s poems. God, but she was an infuriatingly merry ray of sunshine. I think I would have had to smack her, if I’d’ve known her.
collage and altered poem in handmade book
3 3/4 x 5 1/2 inches
There are sometimes
two straight roads
One over,
one under the hill.
Terrible thoughts
and fierce desires
long to follow
my own
wild will.
collage and altered poem in handmade book
3 3/4 x 5 1/2 inches
This August day we two alone,
Dream of a night forever flown.
collage and altered poem in handmade book
3 3/4 x 5 1/2 inches
I learned the uselessness
of woe.
It carried me back
to the day that is flown
I curse it then
and sigh for wings,
dragged down earthward
by little things.
collage and altered poem in handmade book
3 3/4 x 5 1/2 inches
O strange engine
of steel and steam,
Awake and rise
Cast off thy dream
O restless engine
o blood and bone,
hurry on
and hurrying, go
collage and altered poem in handmade book
3 3/4 x 5 1/2 inches
If I could dwell there,
ever more alone,
Forgetting
forgotten
unknown
where the hands that destroy
the ghost of a Joy,
Reach forth
and clasp my own.
We Know We Dream, We Dream We Know
collage and altered poem in handmade book
3 3/4 x 5 1/2 inches
So soon, so soon,
the changes came
On that same river,
not the same,
Bearing our joys
and bringing our woes
We know we dream
we dream we know.
The Ghost of a Hope
collage and altered poem in handmade book
3 3/4 x 5 1/2 inches
There’s the ghost of a Hope
in the grave between
Close to the border-land of woe,
Guard above us
while we sleep
When all the hidden
things are known.
red paper boat 