Words and Worlds
©April 10th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
The Book Thief
Speak(s) with Wicked Words
In a Different Voice
On the Origin of Species,
baring White Teeth.
Self Comes to Mind.
While The Prophet is Reviving Ophelia
Into the Looking-Glass Wood we go.
Like An Anthropologist on Mars,
I find my way with The Golden Compass
and use an Amber Spyglass to spot
Garlic and Sapphires, which I put in my knapsack,
but The Ruby in the Smoke
makes my eyes burn, and there’s
Fire in The Ashes, which
The Warmth of Other Suns ignites.
Ishmael, I cry, I’m Waiting for Godot,
Invisible Cities were Slouching Towards Bethlehem
But Their Eyes Were Watching God,
As they sang Amazing Grace
While they waited for the Beloved to come Home.
And The Things They Carried as they
Walk (ed) Two Moons
made The Soul of the Night
glow like Numbers in the Dark
While The Once and Future King finds
Strength in What Remains in
The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Descartes’ Dream is
The Sound of a Wild Snail
Eating.
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P.S. All the titles of the books are italicized.
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This “Poem” was in response to the NaPoWriMo prompt for Day 10 (today), which reads thus:
And now for our (optional) prompt! … Today’s prompt comes to us from Lillian Hallberg. She challenges us to write a “book spine” poem. This involves taking a look at your bookshelves, and writing down titles in order (or rearranging the titles) to create a poem … If you want to take things a step further, Lillian suggests gathering a list of titles from your shelves (every third or fifth book, perhaps, if you have a lot) and using the titles, as close to the originals as possible, to create a poem that is seeded throughout with your own lines, interjections, and thoughts. Happy writing!
