What one poet learnt from 2020: Preview DRAFT 1.x
- It is never too early for an outro.
- Rain is louder than thoughts, but only in the first
fourthree minutes. OurYour shadow is still stuck to my wall, where it was cast, without care, that last weekend before the first lockdown.- At some point, I turned this year into a convenient excuse.
Like you did. - Probability is inversely proportionate to the length of silence. Words however cannot change the outcome.
- If so much pain seems senseless, a
littlelittle happiness, by extension, is senseless too. - Every existential equation is solved in the songs the birds made up when humans emptied the streets.
- The thing is, phone calls end.
Like life.Like time. - It doesn’t take that long for “every day felt like a year” to become “a year that felt like a day”. (It takes a day. Or a year.)
- Isolation is terrifying without a secret preoccupation. (Unless you are secretly preoccupied with the terrors of isolation, in which case the preoccupation is terrifyingly isolating.) (Why secret?)
- Being a poet during a pandemic is a test of brevity. How best can the endless void, the featureless grey wrapped sky, the road that bends into the horizon, the distance that is measured in everything other than distance — how best can the infinite be compressed into neat lines that in the seventh reading still make
somesense. - Size has swapped meaning. Big has turned small. Little is too much. Consider. The Universe. One word. Forever. Now.
- Mostly, just #11.
- Truly, just #4. But concise is always a verse, thirteen verses too long.
I find #3 to be quite stirring…
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Thank you, Margaret.
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Ah Yes. Love 7!
Anna :o]
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Thanks so much, Anna!
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Very thought-provoking! And now I have learned a new word: outro.
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And I look forward to seeing it used in one of your poems!!! Thank you, Rosemary!
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Love your clever use of the strikethrough. I love your expression ‘Probability is inversely proportionate to the length of silence’ My favourite is no.7 When we were in lockdown that’s the thing we noticed most.
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Thank you, Marja… love how when the world quietened, across the globe people noticed similar things!
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A sort of pandemic stream of consciousness! An interesting write.
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Thanks so much!
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I love this so much. The sound of how an “existential equation is solved in the songs the birds made up when humans emptied the streets” is stunning writing.
I would love to copycat the structure and topic, if you don’t mind.
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Oh please do! Khaya has a piece out as well, so we can knit them all together as we bid goodbye to this year!
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I read Khaya’s and loved it, too! I shall write my own then. And you are right, it will make a fantastic end of year piece. ❤️
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Super!
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2020 definitely challenged my creativity, along with ideas of what it means to be creative.
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Yep! That’s a deep thought- what does it mean to be creative and what about poetry! Thanks Rommy!
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So much perfection! Loved the way the lines would send you down rabbit holes and back up to other lines and felt as if they were being written as they were read.
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Thanks so much, Chrissa.
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I adore this, the format and the insights listed. These two lines most: It doesn’t take that long for “every day felt like a year” to become “a year that felt like a day”. Your shadow is still stuck to my wall, where it was cast, without care, that last weekend before the first lockdown.
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Thanks so much, Colleen!!
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I love no. 9.
Isolation has never been an issue for me.
Thank goodness.
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Yes, some folks handled it so much better than others! Thanks, Hazel.
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The pain and the happiness in #6 must also end like the phone call in #8, eh? All things end, even endings.
Intriguing work/edit indeed.
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Even endings! Yes, indeed! Thanks, Ron!
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#11 resonates most deeply with me
Happy Sunday Rajani. Thank you for dropping by my blog today
Stay Safe
Much❤love
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Thanks Gillena.
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Oh my goodness, this is so good. I especially love number 7. This is really brilliant, Rajani. Wow!
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Thanks so much, Sherry!
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Wow! Love the progression of thought, the snide asides in the cross-outs, the qualifying parentheses. The directions to re-read, the mention of 7 times. I use the pandemic as an excuse. This is a new revelation. I want to spend more time figuring out what I am supposed to be doing, with a little less concern for brevity. It may take a long time. Everything may take a long time, and yet, life is too short to complete.
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You’ve said it a lot better than I could, Susan. Everything may take a long time, yet life is too short. There’s so much of inward travel that has happened during the pandemic… I hope it takes us all to better places!
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Rajani, I love what you did here! So many of these lines speak to me. And you’re so right, “It is never too early for an outro.” I’ll now go write my own 2020 Outro, having been greatly inspired by your piece. 🙂
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Yay! Can’t wait to read it, Khaya! Glad bits of this resonated. It’s been quite a year!
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In my sightless world, I find the songs of birds quite comforting, unseen but not unfelt, simply joyous for being, paying no attention to humanity’s turmoil, a reminder that life is much bigger than me.
Your thoughts provoke my mind to deeper considerations. thank you.
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So true…. that sense of the larger things is such a gift. Thanks so much, Tiostib.
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No 7. The return of people is to be lamented for sure.
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The birds must surely be annoyed! 🙂
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