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
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
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,
exquisite fear clasped closer.
Carol A. Stephen
April 28, 2016