Thursday, June 3, 2010

MOONING (An "Erasure" poem)

A new form, thanks to We Write Poems, my Thursday hangout for poetry prompts. Take a piece of literature, any piece, and "erase" text until you have a poem. This is based on a classical text, and I found the exercise quite fun. If you want to try, go to this link and you will have fun, too!
http://wavepoetry.com/erasures/

The whole text of Aristophenes' work can be found on the site, but here is my first "Erasure," although unfortunately this website will not allow me to show all the gaps... so again, try it yourself and you'll see!


MOONING HAS ITS CONSEQUENCES
An Erasure based on Aristophenes’ “Clouds”

ready set Moon
commanded the Athenians and
their allies and then declared
dreadful things openly. first
for torches;
“Boy, buy a torch, moonlight
is beautiful.” And confers benefits
on you, that observe
correctly, but confuse
constantly threatening when they
are defrauded , and depart home, not
having met the regular feast
. And you
sacrificing,
observing fast,
mourn , pouring libations
and laughing. For which reason , having
the lot be
deprived by us ; for thus he
will know better that he ought to
Moon.

Amy Barlow Liberatore/Sharp Little Pencil

1 comment:

  1. LOL! I think, Amy, only you would set the Athenians to mooning. =)

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