Friday, May 4, 2012

An Erasure Poem ... Finally!


Friends, sorry for the delay in completing an erasure poem from Wednesday's prompt. Anyway, here it is. Completely concocted in Photoshop after scanning in the two book pages. That's why there's a herky-jerky quality to the blue lines; I'm drawing them with a mouse while holding my index finger down. Obviously need more practice. (Click on the image to see a slightly larger version that's easier to read.)




How to Build a Dinosaur

Merlin begins with powdered tin
and flashes the substance
into different elements,
sophisticated tools for
the amazing ability to keep
coming up with new shapes
and dinosaur tissues,
offering valuable evolution
in mastodon and mammoth bodies.

—Draft by Vince Gotera     [do not copy or quote ... thanks]

I don't know that the poem makes a whole lot of conventional sense. I was trying for an alchemical feeling in it.

Anyway, I think of it as a practice piece: a rehearsal into creating the visual artifact, and also isolating the/a found text from the source. I do think the altered pages look pretty sweet. Don't you think so?

The source is How to Build a Dinosaur: Extinction Doesn't Have to Be Forever by Jack Horner and James Gorman (Dutton, 2009).

What do you think, friends? Please leave a comment below. Thanks! Ingat.


20 comments:

Susan said...

Love it!

Anonymous said...

I like the quality of the line, it adds to the sense of experimentation in your alchemical lab. This one induces synaesthesia, sounds of bubbling and pops from beakers. I also appreciate the layers of marks that add mystery to the text I can't quite make out like you need the magic glasses to read. Which of course, you'd only get once inducted into the secret society of alchemy. It would have a cool name like Recombinant Resurrectors tag line Harbingers of the Dinosaur. Now my imagination has run away. Thanks again for the fabulous prompt.

Vince Gotera said...

Thanks, Susan. You should try an erasure poem.

Vince Gotera said...

Hi, Anna. Thanks a lot. I always love your comments which take off into the ether.

Sandy Longhorn said...

Love, love, love this. I especially love that the erasure isn't complete and the other words not chosen sort of float in the background of the poem. Beauty.

Laurie Kolp said...

It definitely has an alchemy feel to it, Vince. I like that you added the punctuation in the poem. This is something I want to do again. Thank you so much for the inspiration (as I've been feeling a little let down since April ended).

Circletheblock said...

Wonderful visual! Super-fine poem! "Merlin begins with powdered tin/and flashes the substance/into different elements" really lures me into its chemistry! Thanks for the prompt! I will post mine shortly... :) Hope you are having a lovely Saturday!

Vince Gotera said...

It's almost like a palimpsest, at least for the words in the background. Thanks, Sandy!

Vince Gotera said...

Laurie, if you make another one, let me know, okay? I'd love to see it. And thanks for the comment!

Vince Gotera said...

Andrea, thanks so much. Please come back and post when you have it done. I'm indeed having a great Saturday, thanks.

Vince Gotera said...

You know, Sandy, it just occurred to me that if you pick the right colors -- because cool colors recede and warm colors come forward, one could really go for what you said. So if the page background were bluish, for example, and the unerased words were red or yellow, you could really enhance and magnify that floating in the background effect. Hmm.

Circletheblock said...

http://circletheblock.blogspot.com/2012/05/write-erasure-poem.html :)

Vince Gotera said...

Thanks! Go look at it, everyone.

Damon McLaughlin said...

dude--that's slick! i'll have to try my hand at it. great little experiment.

Laurie Kolp said...

Hey, Vince... I did do another one, but forgot to let you know... and tomorrow will be my third. Here's the second:

http://lkharris-kolp.blogspot.com/2012/09/i.html

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