Category: Altered Poems

Gliding o’er the glimmering sea
And all we dream or wish for thee
The birthday morn when thou art three
When the days are all the same to thee

Here upon the quivering margin
Every star in yonder welkin
To grace henceforth Time’s diadem

In the years that followed
when days were dark
Beneath such skies
what need of chart?

Dances on the silent sea
Phantom forms that flit and flee

Ever bubbling on in glee,
Radiant sky
a boundless sea

Floating shadows
almost blended,
The long discussion
silent
ended

A hope and everlasting love–
Free as the stars that shine above

Bringing their message
across the deep
Onward the long
procession sweeps
Where tide and current
play hide and seek

Caught as it were in a tangled net
Till the stars we remember will not forget

Push back upon the shelf of silence
collage (anatomical illustrations, found art, child’s dress pattern, and altered poem) on Arches cover paper
7 1/2 x 11 inches

Push back upon the shelf
Of silence all your thoughts
and morbid doubt
because your lips are dumb
and
The world is better off without.

Revere
collage (map, found poem, and magazine images) on Arches cover paper
7 1/2 x 11 inches

On second thought I’m in no haste
To launch upon that boundless waste.
To drift unheeding day or night,
Or drop, like Jonah, out of sight.

And Every Eye Speaks Loathing and Disdain
collage (anatomical illustration, found art, and map) on Arches cover paper
7 1/2 x 11 inches

Our promised joys are steeped in bitter pain;
And every eye speaks loathing and disdain.

Chickens are experts at disdainful, loathing looks. In fact, they may have invented the stink eye.

Span the Wide Chasm
collage (altered Polaroid, 35mm photo, inkjet print, blueprint, child’s dress pattern, and page from history textbook) on Arches cover paper
7 1/2 x 11 inches

Span the wide chasm, and by a single bound
We trace the life and almost hear the sound.
What echoes haunt thy resurrected walls!
When lurid night engulfed thy stately halls.

I really like the way this one turned out. I sat there for a couple of hours, looking at a pile of things I’d gathered together, and suddenly it all took shape.