Prompt: Split a poem and finish whichever half you want.
Creation:
Crystal Palace Blues
unexpectedly an iguanodon
take in its botched anatomy
how it sadly sheds its concrete skin
nothing that ever lived looked like this
truly it is a terrible lizard
The original poem before it was split:
A car with one headlight,
the near side,
fitful, flickering at best.
Unexpectedly butterfingered when it came to love,
dyspraxic even,
he dropped hearts.
Women remained an irrelevance to him,
men fared no better,
a human solvent
he sundered ties expediently,
so the path of his life was strewn with debris,
disgruntled ex-lovers,
metaphorical corpses with too real knives in their backs.
But how he can talk,
silver haired, silver tongued
dangerous.
An iguana basking in the flash light glare.
The splitting of the poem:
A car with one headlight,
the near near side,
fitful, flickering at best.
Unexpectedly butterfingered when it came to love,
dyspraxic even,
he dropped dropped hearts.
Women remained an irrelevance to him,
men fared no better,
a human solvent
he sundered ties expediently,
so the path of his life was strewn with debris,
disgruntled ex-lovers,
metaphorical corpses with too real knives in their backs.
But how he he can talk,
silver haired, silver tongued
dangerous. Dangerous.
An iguana basking in the flash light glare.
Split poem part 1:
A car with
the near
fitful flickering
unexpectedly butterfingered
dyspraxic
he dropped
women remained an
men fared
a human
he sundered
so the path of his
disgruntled
metaphorical corpses with too
but how he
silver haired
dangerous
an iguana basking in
an unexpectedly metaphorical iguana
butterfingered from all the marijuana
Split poem Part 2:
one headlight
near side
at best
when it came to love
even
dropped hearts
irrelevance to him
no better
solvent
ties expediently
life was strewn with debris
ex-lovers
real knives in their back
he can talk
silver tongued
dangerous
flash light glare
Notes:
This has been a challenging prompt. I decided to chose a poem I did not really like, one that had not worked that well. I then sliced it down the middle and that was when the problems started. Should I really just complete the lines? Would I not just remake a poem I was unhappy with? How precisely should I follow the prompt?
This is my literal response:
A car with the doors open
the nearside indicator’s
fitful flickering winds down the battery
unexpectedly butterfingered, self conscious,
he dropped his act.
Women remained a mystery,
men fared worse.
A human cold fish
he sundered all ties
and the trajectory of his life
came down to a big car
nowhere to go and no one to go with.
I liked the iguana possibly because it rhymed with marijuana and wrote doggerel.
I thought of something like I am The Walrus, a stream of consciousness but, honestly, did not think I was up to it.
Then the idea of an iguanodon, that led me to think about the crumbling dinosaurs at Crystal Palace, that led to something I’d read about the artist hosting a meal inside the dinosaur.
My daughter telling me she’d seen the sculptures recently also was floating around as was the news I’d recently read that they are in need of repair.
All of the above led to:
unexpectedly an iguanodon
all concrete and jumbled anatomy
the toad skin is cracking
this terrible lizard is well past its sell by date
This is a post about the meal: https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/the-victorian-dinner-inside-a-dinosaur/
I think I have stumble on something here that will repay exploring.
31st December 1853
Robert Owen sits in the head
of the half built iguanodon
manages seven courses
toasts their Majesties and knows
nothing before was as good
as powerful or as wise or
capable of remaking this world in their image
I also turned the other half of the poem into this:
Dangerous
When it came to love
his life was all dropped hearts,
bitter ex-lovers,
each with a real knife in the back.
He was at his best, silver tongued,
appearing to care until he didn’t any more.
I think this sticks to the spirit of the original poem well. If there is a criticism it is that it is all tell and no show.
