I have two poems today. I was originally thinking I’d work from the same text and post them both together, but things didn’t work out as planned. They’re distinctly different and each deserves its own post.
The first is a diastic poem I wrote this morning using this article as a source text and the phrase “Good Cheer” as the seed. As this was taking shape I first thought I might label it a “failed poem,” but as I sat with it throughout the day it seemed there maybe was something to play with here between the repetition of “good” and “cheer” and “order” and some of the subtle sound correspondences that come up (I like how “order” rhymes with “water”).
Good Cheer
Good l’Ordre Good Acadia
Colony the keep interpreter Order
Good looked moose died
Casualties the French asked water
Good November whom landscape
Comforts their the game partridge
Grace for peoples’ guides
Cheer the been celebrated natural
Good something proverbial Good
Cheer that the Order Cheer
Group now-retired professor Food
Cheer which spent several Order
Gathered cod cooked needles
Cross then them covering offering
Good for good kindly