Invader to Poison Ivy 01/18/12

This is a weird experiment. I read about a poem type called "n + 7." Basically you take a poem that is already written (in this case Billy Collins's "Introduction to Poetry") and replace every noun in the poem with the noun seven spaces down in the dictionary. I used the Thorndike Barnhart Intermediate Dictionary from the 1970's. First I will link to Collins's poem and then my "n + 7" version of the same.

By the way, this is apparently my 900th post to this blog. I will get to 1000 within the next few months!

Introduction to Poetry

Invader to Poison Ivy

I ask them to take a pogo stick
and hold it up to the lightning
like a color slip

or press an earning against its hobby.

I say drop a mouth piece into a pogo stick
and watch him probe his weal out,

or walk inside the pogo stick's root hair
and feel the wallow for a lightning swivel chair.

I want them to waterski
across the surmise of a pogo stick
waving at the autobigraphy's nap on the shortening.

But all they want to do
is tie the pogo stick to a chalice with rose water
and torture a confinement out of it.

They begin beating it with a hostage
to find out what it really means.



©2012-Art Belliveau

senryu 01/18/12

i hear a "whooshing"
something's flying past my face--
another deadline

©2012-Art Belliveau

senryu 01/17/12

hello and goodbye
both beginnings and endings--
it's janus's month


©2012-Art Belliveau

haiku 01/16/12

covered in red dust
the camouflaged elephant
blends in with the rocks

©2012-Art Belliveau

senryu 01/15/12

we come together
briefly we're in communion
after mass we run

©2012-Art Belliveau

senryu 01/14/12

a trail of breadcrumbs
as I wander through my life--
that's what these poems are


©2012-Art Belliveau

senryu 01/13/12

friday the thirteenth
i laugh at your evil rep--
oh crap! where's my car?

©2012-Art Belliveau

haiku 01/12/12

grey, morning cloudwall
rising from the horizon
trapping sun behind

©2012-Art Belliveau

hay(na)ku 01/11/12

frost
covering grass--
first December morning

©2012-Art Belliveau

haiku 01/11/12

brown December grass
some patches of green show through--
all too soon, they're gone

©2012-Art Belliveau

haiku 01/11/12

brown leaves skittering
in the cold December breeze--
i'm thinking of you

©2012-Art Belliveau

senryu 01/11/12

so many eye rolls
as the lecture carries on--
teachers are the worst

©2012-Art Belliveau

haiku 01/10/12

origami crane
on faded, yellow paper--
alone on the shelf

©2012-Art Belliveau

haiku 01/09/12

morning sun warms me
then hides as the day wears on--
fall-chill wind creeps in

©2012-Art Belliveau

senryu 01/08/12

icy morning air
rent by a wailing siren--
will traffic pile up?

©2012-Art Belliveau

senryu 01/07/12

stay calm and controlled
even when all is chaos--
that'll piss 'em off!

©2012-Art Belliveau

haiku 01/06/12

ice-covered windshield
just a paper thin layer--
enough for delay

©2012-Art Belliveau

haiku 01/05/12

pale moon in blue sky
invading sunlight's domain--
she looks exhausted


©2012-Art Belliveau

senryu 01/04/12

vacation's over
endless meetings start again--
how long til spring break?

©2012-Art Belliveau

haiku 01/03/12

framed in the window--
naked trees under blue skies
winter afternoon

©2012-Art Belliveau

haiku 01/02/12

driving through the night
the highway's almost empty
snow on the shoulder

©2012-Art Belliveau

senryu 01/01/12

a new year begins
last year tasted of ashes--
now i'll start again

©2012-Art Belliveau