© 2008 -- 2011 the Grandpa at The Word Mechanic. All rights reserved.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Treatment

I know I shouldn't post another poem after just posting one yesterday. But I don't trust what I would say if I did an original post tonight. I just got a heads-up that a very long-term contract is about to come to an end. I'm going to be okay, although this contract saw me through some very lean years when I first started freelancing full time. But what makes me upset is the way I got the notice.

That's another post. Here's the poem. Treatment is a term used in film making. I wrote this poem while attending a short-film festival.

Treatment

Montage, or composition by juxtaposition, is the most characteristic feature of film form.
"The Art of Learning How"


So much depends upon our ability to perceive & to recognize the difference between accident & design.
"Language without Words"

black lines shift through white space
forming simple boxes on animated film
squared edges heave
melting into perfect circles
that breathe to shape
themselves like pears
that grow faces & fall
from trees on terraced
plots where thurber dogs
chase balls that blossom
into thin lined roses spreading
from center screen with a pink tinge
that flares red

dew jeweled petals
against flaming repetitions of dawn

fade full color stills fleshed
3-D thrills of life bleeding
on kitchen floors through looped screams
of gargled deathless pain
out of sync with silent loops of the dying
dissolving to black
pinpoint etchings of light
crisscrossing the screen
until only white space remains

Originally published in A Matter of Mind, Foothills Publishing, 2004.
© copyright 2004, 2009 the Grandpa at The Word Mechanic Blog.
All rights reserved.

16 comments:

  1. Brilliant. I love the way the lines form a curve.

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  2. Yikes. Sorry about the contract.

    The word I would use to describe the poem is "undulating". It read like waves- very cool indeed.

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  3. I like the poem, the flow is very pleasant. Sorry your notice was not all that good. Contracts end, then contracts begin also. Hopefully you'll get another to fill the void.

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  4. A "treat" of a treatment indeed!

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  5. Oh my gosh-I absolutely LOVE this. So intriguing.

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  6. I like when reading feels like dreaming. Thank you.

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  7. It's too early for me to read poetry, I'll come back later today...but you're like a soap opera cliff hanger, Grandpa, with that teaser opener and leaving us in suspense...what gives? Sounds none too "cool."

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  8. So sorry about the contract. I had one that ended too but I didn't care except for the money.

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  9. "until only white space remains"
    Very Nice Grandpa! Undulating indeed.
    Best wishes re: your freelancing.
    Aloha-

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  10. Love "Thurber dogs". And sorry to hear about the ending of your contract. Hopefully something will jump in and replace it.

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  11. So sorry about the contract. Great poem.

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  12. juxtaposition is one of my favorite words by the way! Not often you can use it!

    Great writing as always- had me following with my heart and head!

    so
    question for you. I'll see if your email addy is on here- if not- mine is on my profile!

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  13. Oh dear Grandpa, I guess its a sign of the times. We are all getting affected in one way or another. But when one door closes another opens and somethign tells me with your talent it will not be too long until a more welcoming door is opened for you. Wonderful poem!

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  14. sudden endings are often the spring of new beginnings..good luck..:)

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  15. I found the poem very thought-provoking, found mtself imagining the visuals, but then struggled a bit to relate the second part to the first. Maybe me, I'll have another read later.

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  16. The poem is electric; that's what springs to mind. It leaps from vision to vision with an electric buzz that injects it with rapid-fire life... interestingly and imaginatively written, as usual :)

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