I believe it is possible to compose as many different books as one has poems, rearranged in as many different ways. In other words, I could take 45 poems (to pick a number) and create 45 different books. Each different in that he reading experience is different because of the different ordering.
There's a project, to write the poems that would amplify or project this structural thesis. I don't think there is a logical way such poems would read, necessarily, but one could set to work under the influence of this idea and see what happens.
This idea perhaps would not have occurred to me except that I have the platform to do it. Via publish-on-demand (lulu.com) I can create as many titles as I have time for. Note though, I would NOT publish 45 books of the same poems rearranged simply to prove my point. I present the idea as concept which has better practical value in pointing out the effect of ordering, of sequence, accumulation, etc.
On the publishing front I am coming out of an eight-month hiatus. I had numinous odds all set to publish in late December 2015 then pulled it back and cancelled it. I also stopped writing poems until just recently. There were reasons for this, principally, that I wanted to focus on more significant personal and religious matters because, well, they merited that attention, and also because it was the only way to loosen myself from the rut I had gotten into with writing. I mean my approach and expectations, or lack thereof. I came out of this hiatus by attending a reading where I read a couple poems at open mike, feeling refreshed and open as well. I started writing poems and blogging again a bit a couple weeks ago
I opened up lulu.com and looked over things and thought, Okay. All this still makes sense. It would not have bothered me if for some reason none of it made any sense because I had reconciled myself to writing and what it has given me, which is to say, my life. I met my wife through the Writer's Workshop in Iowa. My career as a trademark paralegal and success in that has been made possible through my writing. Writing well and reading well has guided my difficult yet sure path in my faith. With all that - I repeated to myself every now and again over my eight-month break - not to mention the 30-odd books I have written (and self-published, true), why should I bother to write anymore?
The answer of course is because I feel like it and at some point a better reason will be made apparent. Or in short, Onward!
To the original point of this blog, numinous odds includes poems I published in miasma along with some newer ones. I have altered the dedication, to "those who stop and stare and stop." And the book is a kind of incarnation of stopping, of ceasing of effect. It plays from the moment and I think looks out on the current political landscape a bit and comments. I need to redo the cover art, then out it goes.
I just remembered that I wanted to write something about visual poetry today. I guess it will have to wait!
