Calyx of Held – Erasure Poem – Click on picture to zoom
Calyx of Held
Selden laid the book aside
bitter waters of life
mystery or taint
troubled vision cleared
insinuations of money
intolerable, unmitigated
mute lips
rest in the kiss
all that his heart craved
detachment
his spiritual fastidiousness
fated to pass
the ruin of their lives
atrophy and extinction
drew him in the silence
Thanks to Vince Gotera for the magnificent prompt on erasure poetry http://vincegotera.blogspot.com/2012/05/post-napowrimo-prompt-erasure-poetry.html.
This is my first attempt at the form. Calyx of Held (click to hear the audio file)
Also shared on Open Link Night at dVerse Poets Pub hosted by heroic Natasha Head http://dversepoets.com/2012/06/05/openlinknight-week-47/
Chromapoetica 
mute lips
rest in the kiss
all that his heart craved
nice…and that last stanza is emotion packed….love the art work you did on the page as well…these found poems are just awesome….
Thanks Brian, it was such a fun process I’m going to get myself into trouble :). Glad Laurie led you to them and I appreciate your visit!
still going to have to try this…it is a fascinating exercise…might have to do thsi for a future poetics…happy OLN anna…
It would make a great poetics prompt :)!
oh, i love this! you did a fabulous job, and how fun! i think the title is my favorite part of all…
As I said before Kelly, you are good for the soul :)! I am thrilled you loved the title best as it’s my favorite part – shocking. You should try one, so much potential in Illustrator/Photoshop and beyond. I would love to see it.
Anna: an amazing creation and masterpiece!
I love how the words “tumbled” down the page as though it was just meant to be. I love all of it, top to bottom!
It was fun to play with placing the connecting lines to snake through particular text. This is simply a fascinating concept and much more interesting than experimental poetry that utilizes binary code or is randomly generated by the computer. Thank you for your compliment, I’m thrilled you enjoyed it. Very nice to meet you :).
Anna- Wow- this is amazing… really beautiful presentation. Isn’t this fun?
Thank you Laurie, how kind, it really was a lot of fun :)!
I’m glad you shared this at dVerse, Anna. Have you done another one? Maybe we can motivate each other. It is a fun challenge.
I haven’t done another one but I’d love to do it again. I have a new puppy so my hands are full at the moment but sometime soon :).
Wow, how weird is this. When I sat down this morning/afternoon to write I had two ideas, Id taking over the ego, which I chose to do as a letter as you’ve seen, but the other piece was almost identical to this. The other day rummaging around the basement I found some water-ruined books I had bought for like a penny or piece when I was still in 8th grade at a book fair. They are all YA books, but I had thought about tearing out some pages and highlighting pieces on each page, very similar to this Erasure poem. And then I see your piece and it’s like I no longer need to push that idea out, as it’s virtually right here. Great job. Love the prompt, obviously, and the words, well, definitely paints a picture, and packs a lot of emotion and character into a piece of it’s size. Thanks. Really a fine job.
Oh, I think you should flesh out your idea, I’d love to see what you come up with. Thanks for letting me know you’re ok. I’m sorry if I over-reacted to your poem it just frightened me. A testament to your poetic skills no doubt.
Edith Wharton gets the credit for the intense ending to House of Mirth. It’s a book I cry over every time I read it. Do you know it?
Perhaps I will, You just pretty much accomplished what I could have hoped to, but maybe, those books will just be trashed if I don’t, so perhaps. No need to apologize about that, I appreciated it. Nope, never read her, but sounds like you recommend it, so I ‘ll put it on my to do list. Thanks again.
Yes, they also made an excellent movie with Gillian Anderson as Lily Bart.
I’ve seen something like this at an art museum or/and a novelty bookstore once, but I can’t recall where. I find this type of work very intriguing as I like works that can be read more than one way.
Very cool piece of work, Anna.
Oh, so wonderful you find it engaging as I am likely to experiment again :)!
Hi, Anna. I hope you do experiment with it again. Beautifully done. Visually appealing and the poem is striking. Btw, finished mine too: http://vincegotera.blogspot.com/2012/05/erasure-poem-finally.html
Wonderful I’ll come read it!
And–in addition to what others have said–I love how your poem makes your source important too–I wonder if living authors would get behind the symbiosis and then Vince’s prompt would start trending, book sales would increase, and people would be framing poems and putting them on their walls! Anna, your work continues to inspire me.
Wouldn’t that be an amazing world! Thank you, I think our highest purpose as artists is fulfilled when we inspire others to creative acts.
What a cool idea! I’ve never heard of it before. Your art work ads dimension to it. So fun!
Yes, it was a blast. You should try it; the prompt is linked above. Thanks so much for reading!
I am reading your poem over and over against the backdrop of the physiognomic meaning of its title and as I read I can see the stanzas moving up that pedal synapse. From book to silence, there seems to be a change that Selden undergoes that takes him from someplace sensory to someplace without or beyond that same set of perceptions, but its a labyrinthine journey where that which is sensory and that which isn’t drives are muddled and confused. All of this pushed by a gentle and incessant rhythm which pushes these observations to their end. A very effective construction of your source!
This poem connects to another http://chromapoesy.com/2011/10/29/what-remains-unsaid/ in its use of the peony and Calyx of Held. I like where you went with this, I was in a way working to convey his disorientation as he comes to terms with Lily’s life and death and his role. On another level it is about the tragic nature of love and our inner struggle to make sense of ourselves and the context of our lives. Then there’s the level I don’t explicate (author’s prerogative :)).
Mute lips rest in the kiss… sounds so final. Sad. Loved the art work.
You are always up to trying new things Anna, wonderful!
Thank you, I really enjoyed making this one! I have a new puppy so I’ll be by as soon as she lets me :).
Mute lips rest in the kiss, that has to be my favourite line of all of the pieces I have read of yours so far, nice work again Anna.
As I said above Edith Wharton really gets the credit for building an incredible end to her novel. I’ll be by soon :).
Love this…mute lips
rest in the kiss
all that his heart craved…great write, Anna.
Thanks Ayala, my puppy ate up all my time and energy yesterday (so worth it though) so I’ll be by to read yours as soon as I catch up.
So very creative, fantastic work!
[So wild, too, I’ve been so busy today, just now had 1 minute to post & read today’s dVerse poems, clicked Mr Linky to find 108 already! I clicked your name first, out of the middle of the bunch or so, and found this wonderful reward! Sometimes it’s like that.]
Great job, Poet, ❤ This!
Thank you Steve, you’re always so encouraging! I am looking forward to reading your poem :).
erasure reminds me of bees
hopping over gardens
visiting meanings lightly
That’s a beautiful thought!