Cut-and-Paste Found Poetry Part II

Based on the poem I wrote in the previous entry (which you should probably read first), Lane asked me to do the following: "1) out of this, 'mine' a short poem that feels definitively 'modern' (in a contemporary way, not in a classical Modernist way) and 2) using only this text, (connective words are allowed) turn this poem into a sonnet."

Below I've written two new poems using only the words and punctuation found in my initial poem with no extra or connective words. The sonnet is first, followed by the contemporary poem. I loved writing Shakespearean sonnets when I was a teenager, but I haven't written one in over ten years (and never with these constraints). I don't think I've ever tried to write a contemporary poem, per say. In all honestly, I don't read much poetry beyond the 1970s, and mostly it's late stuff from James Dickey or Robert Penn Warren, both of whom rejected contemporary poetry in different ways. But, I gave it my best shot!

As mentioned in the previous post, these words all come from movie titles in my DVD collection.

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Strange Sanctum

Beyond the scarlet-golden sunset light,

A raven dreams of death. Condemned to fly

On silent wings across the winter night.

Her lonely sacred burden is to die.

The violent voyage of eternity

Will long escape this phantom with no name.

Her fugitive flesh now chained to body,

With soul reborn in rhapsodies of flame.     

A distant lightning echoes in my eyes--

The moonlight shadows at midnight are long.

The Darkness broken by savage sunrise.

I wake up to witness God's hollow song.

Passion of night now vanishes in fire--

My dream an illusion of inner desire.

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Bridal Shadows

My wife is chained

to my shame. I murder her

heart, and smile as I kiss

her naked tears.

We live a hollow life.

At night we scream

as in a tomb.

I speak of her

as a saboteur of my passion--

But I am her.