where greece meets india
February 5, 2008
I.
nets for catching gods or fish
hieroglyphs & 3rd eyes
the virgin & mastercard rosaries
artemis dressed as siva
numbered stairs
leading where globular life forms
bulge voluptuous
stone phallus one against the other
black figures dance across a vase’s
memory of orange; the cracked surface
of a young girl against her father’s gaze;
volcanic jesus
clipped of color; obscure; mummied;
& vulgar sculptures heart-shaped +
blackened by rain glyphed like lines on
palms
II.
the virgin & mastercard rosaries
numbered stairs
hieroglyphs & 3rd eyes
leading where globular life forms
artemis dressed as siva
bulge voluptuous
nets for catching gods or fish
striptease
glyphed like lines on
palms
clipped of color; obscure; mummied;
black figures dance across a vase’s
memory of orange;
volcanic jesus
stone phallus one against the other
the cracked surface
of a young girl against her father’s gaze;
vulgar sculptures heart-shaped &
blackened by rain
in a post from a couple of days ago, i presented the whole sequence of words with which i responded to a slideshow of amy trachtenberg’s photos of paros, greece. for a homework assignment, i was instructed to make 5 images from words, arrange them in 2 different sequences, & comment on their distinct impact.
for “I.”, the first half of this experiment, i simply cut & pasted my ten favorite images from the complete piece. each stanza contains 5 images which were to be rearranged in the second half, “II.”
in “II,” i rearranged the first stanza by immediately placing the first line at the end, alternating lines & juxtaposing them methodically. the second stanza was centered on the “volcanic jesus” image. the rest was arranged completely intuitively, emphasizing the ‘i’ sound of “glyphed,” “striptease,” “clipped,” “figures,” etc. what ended up happening, too, was the repeated “a” sound at the very end: “vase,” “gaze,” “shaped,” “rain.”
i’m more drawn to the latter half because i think the sounds are placed more intentionally, drawing the reader into that hypnotic dance of syllables & repetition. the images also seem more organic to me because rather than just having been lifted & listed from the original pages-long poetic response to the slideshow, they are made more real through the sounds that hint at meaning even if the content is obscure.