#poetry remix

[allmimsyweretheborogroves]

There's a certain Slant of light [DJ Mimsy Remix]

XXII. Remix an Emily Dickinson poem.

There's a certain Slant  of light, Winter Afternoons  That oppresses, like the  Heft  Of Cathedral Tunes  (this Heavenly Hurt),  it gives us We  (can find no scar, But  internal difference (—Where  the Meanings, are—) None may teach it Any  'Tis the seal [[Despair]] An imperial affliction Sent  us of the

Air

When it comes, the Landscape listens  Shadows hold 

their breath When it goes,  'tis like the 

Distance 

On the look of Death 

n.b. The source poem is "There's a certain Slant of light" by Emily Dickinson.

[esmeblaise]

dave lalonde poetry master

[explore-blog]

Made of words from the ornithological description of the Great Cinereous Owl. Available as a print, benefitting the Audubon Society.

The story behind these bird divinations is here.

[feyosha]

MAMAAAA

Just killed a man

I transmogrified his head

Into a Carp and now he’s dead

Mamaaaaaa

life had just begun

But an Eagle came and carried him awaaay

Mamaaaaaa

(Oooh ooh oooooh)

Rereleased into the sky

If he’s not back again (this time tomorrow)

Carrion, carrion,

Viscera and red blood splatters

[blackwood4stucky]

rebirth | aspen blackwood

a poetic remix of The Demon & the Wolf by @eternalnoirethevampire for her discord event!

An unofficial offering for my all souls x mcu fusion au series, blade of nightshade, be my strength not my ruin!

The heavens had split open

as illumination streamed through the crack

in the skies

Of lilac and teal, of vermilion and cerulean,

the divine brought forth new life

Darkness and light cover thee,

the purest form of love

has thou been conceived

Only in the land of endless night shall thy home

be made, parted from thy begetters where

the midnight sun never sets.

A blessing on this babe, thy path is forever marked

Oh shadow princess, oh quicksilver,

why doth thou hide?

Your place is amongst the rivers,

between sunset and moonrise.

read on ao3 and sqwa

[cilil]

The Ifenkönig

Characters: Finwë, Míriel, Námo, mentions of Vairë and Nienna Synopsis: When Míriel falls ill after childbirth, Finwë tries to take her to the gardens of Lórien for healing; however, the Lord of the Dead already has his sights set on her. Warnings: Sickness, death, dark!Námo Poetry

Also available on AO3

Disclaimer: This isn't an original poem written by me, this is based on and adapted from "Erlkönig" by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Edgar Alfred Bowring's English translation of the poem (both of which you can read here). It's a sort of "remix" if you will, just as a fun little exercise because I had this random idea of a darker verse in which Námo actively takes Míriel's soul and this poem fits the vibe.

Title translation and explanation will be down below.

Who rides so late through the night dark and drear?

King Finwë it is, with his lady wife dear.

He holds her tightly embraced in his arm,

He holds her tenderly and keeps her warm. 

“My dear lady, wherefore d’you avert your eye?”

“Do you not see, my lord, the Doomsman close by? 

Do you not see him, with death veil and dark train?”

“Dearest, it must be mist rising over the plain.”

“Oh come to me, lovely Míriel, ere midnight falls 

For there’s peace, quiet and healing in my halls;

From a safe distance, we shall watch fate unfold

And my lady shall adorn you with robes of gold.”

“Oh husband, husband, but do you not hear

The words the Judge whispers in my ear?”

“Be calm, dear wife, your fancy deceives

It is only the wind whispering through leaves.”

“Won’t you, dear Míriel, accompany me there?

I shall leave you in my sister’s loving care;

I shall give you to my wife to keep

She shall sing and hold you in your sleep.”

“Oh husband, husband, but do you not see

The Doomsman brought wife and sister for me?”

“My love, my love, it is quite alright

The mist again is deceiving your sight.”

“My wife, as am I, is charmed by your beauty,

Come with me now, to fulfil my duty.”

“Oh husband, husband, I fear he takes me at last

His hands hold my soul, he’s seizing me fast.”

King Finwë now hurries, afraid for her life

He holds in his arms his shivering wife 

He reaches the gardens with terror and dread

His queen he finds silent, unmoving and dead.

Ifen (also If, Ibe, Eve, Eue) -> Eibe -> Yew König -> King The yew tree is commonly associated with death.

The original title, Erlkönig, translated as Erl-King (the literal meaning being alder (tree) king), comes from the Danish word elle which, according to several sources, can mean either alder or elf, so it's possible that Johann Gottfried Herder - who translated the material that Goethe later adapted originally - made an error; it's also possible he intentionally chose this meaning.

Ergo, the Erl-King could also be an Elf-King, which I thought was a neat tidbit to mention for my fellow Tolkien fans ^^

Thanks for reading!♡

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[pynkhues]

curious as to your thoughts on the may december discourse (some spoilers i guess) - vili has come out and essentially said that he felt the film contributed to his victimization and hurt him. and the response from a lot of film twitter seems to be to yell ITS NOT A BIOPIC and to say he doesnt understand the film (gross). i feel like i dont really care if its a biopic or not, when the film literally quoted vili/mary kay, recreated the mary kay in prison photo exactly, and both charles melton and julianne moore studied vili/mary kay for their performances. to hand wave that all as "not a biopic" feels like a way of writing off any discomfort. i feel like the film should not have made those specific choices, but having done so they had a duty of care to vili. i dont think the film that ended up getting made is worth the continued trauma to vili even if it is art. there were other ways they could have told the story to minimize the harm and they chose not to - and i dont think that choice is a great commentary on tabloids or whatever, its just a ghoulish thing to do

I did see that, anon, and I do have thoughts on it as it's a real grey area in terms of creative license, art and storytelling, and it's a grey area that's been around really since storytelling existed, but before I get into that I just want to quickly clarify what Vili said, because I do think it's important.

Vili didn't say that the film contributed to his victimisation and hurt him, he said the film offended him because it was a ripoff:

“I’m still alive and well,” says Fualaau, now 40 and still living in the Seattle area, where the scandal unfolded. “If they had reached out to me, we could have worked together on a masterpiece. Instead, they chose to do a ripoff of my original story. “I’m offended by the entire project and the lack of respect given to me — who lived through a real story and is still living it,” he adds.

“I love movies — good movies,” he says. “And I admire ones that capture the essence and complications of real-life events. You know, movies that allow you to see or realize something new every time you watch them. “Those kinds of writers and directors — someone who can do that — would be perfect to work with, because my story is not nearly as simple as this movie [portrays],” Fualaau adds.

The reason I think this distinction is an important one to make is because in interviews since Mary Kay Letourneau passing, it's pretty clear that Vili - while absolutely being a victim-survivor - doesn't see himself that way, and even says pretty specifically in his Doctor Oz interview from 2020 that he doesn't see her as a predator or himself as having been preyed on ('there was no perversion...she was my wife and my best friend' are his exact words), and he's pretty clearly open to the idea of a film being made about his story.

I'm not saying this to diminish his feelings about May December at all (I strongly believe that Vili is entitled to feel any and every which way about the film) or to patronise his own understanding of what he experienced - I can't even begin to imagine the complexity of trying to unpack the life he shared with her - but I think it's important to reflect his feelings accurately and to provide a little context to those feelings.

With that said, do I think the creative team should've reached out to Vili before making the film?

Honestly, I don't know.

I think it's one of those questions in art where there's not really a right answer. If Vili's feelings towards Mary Kay are still lost in the silver linings of her grooming, any film that has his direct approval or involvement is going to run the risk of tacit endorsement. It also hamstrings the creative team and opens them up in terms of liability (I actually was a writers assistant on a TV show a million years ago that was sort of a bio pic and I can tell you for a fact that it was a disaster once the person it was based on got involved), and, of course, it runs the risk of shifting the focus of the story the writer is wanting to tell.

And that's the thing about art, right? By design, art is supposed to reflect us back to ourselves in ways that we might not always be comfortable with. Of course, that usually happens less literally than in how Todd Haynes has used Vili and Mary Kay's stories, but not always. Todd Haynes is certainly no stranger to the technique given Velvet Goldmine is pretty transparently inspired by David Bowie and I'm Not There is often confused as a Bob Dylan bio pic despite the fact that it's actually not.

Hell, everyone loves that Succession points a pretty clear finger to the Murdoch's, and while, of course, the Murdoch's - and Bowie and Dylan for that matter - have social, political and economic power that Vili doesn't which does impact the ethics of the decision, it's still made under the same creative ideology that aspects of a real story can render an artwork, a story, a film more emotionally authentic, can create greater resonance, can offer a sharper reflection of the world we live in and offer, perhaps, a message or a question that lingers.

All of this has actually kind of been funny timing as I just finished reading Sarah Weinman's The Real Lolita the other day which is a really excellent blend of true crime, literary history and critical commentary on this exact topic. The book explores the real life case of Sally Horner who was kidnapped by a pedophile in 1948 when she was 11 years old and was forced to roadtrip with him around America for two years. It's actually mentioned in passing in Nabokov's Lolita, but once you go a little deeper it's pretty clear how much of Horner and her story Nabokov used to create Dolores Haze / Lolita.

In the book, Weinnman asks the question as to why Lolita gets to be remembered when Sally's been left to obscurity, and of course, the answer is that there are other Sally's in the news cycle, but only one Lolita in art, and that hopefully in her writing Sally Horner's story she can write her back into bookshelves and place her back into this artwork but who knows if that's what Sally would've wanted (Sarah does, at least, talk to Sally's lone surviving family member, and makes a measure to show that it's very unlikely Nabokov ever did the same).

Was Nabokov wrong for not seeking out Sally's family for Lolita? Honestly, I doubt it even would've occured to him to do so, and the fact that we do now ask questions like this about the ethics of inspiration is, I think, a good thing. We should be critical of how stories are told and who is, and isn't, involved in the telling of them, but again, I don't actually think there are right or wrong answers here.

Fiction is always inspired by real people, real events, real life, it's a part of creation, it's a part of capturing a moment in time, it's about reflection and authenticity, but of course that's been rendered more complex in recent years by the fact that we live in a world that's ever shrinking and the people or the events that inspire new stories are inevitably brought into the public narrative in a way they just weren't back in 1955 when Lolita was first published.

So what does that mean for creativity and inspiration? I don't know, but personally I guess my thoughts would be that Vili is absolutely in his rights to be offended by the film, but I also don't think the filmmakers were wrong necessarily to not reach out. It's not the most ethical choice, but I also don't think it was an inherently bad one either. This isn't a Blonde situation where they write fiction and present it as fact, the creatives have been clear about it being inspried by what happened between Mary Kay and Vili, but they're also not saying Vili and Mary Kay are Joe and Gracie.

I appreciate you feeling like it's much of a muchness though given how they've apparently lifted entire scenes of dialogue. It's a murky question after all, and it's certainly one that's more complex when it comes to people like Vili and Sally than it is with the Murdoch's or even David Bowie, but yes, I'm not sure I see it as something inherently wrong, and I don't personally think it was ghoulish. I just think the specifics of this particular case just kind of shows how the sausage is made when it comes to storytelling.

[52drabbles]

Week 18

For our last poetry month prompt, we're looking for a remix poem of a fic. The fic can be yours or someone else's - but do get permission first! Freeform or structured, have at it!

[whatshesaidtoday]

Day 3 Go-Go’s

Today/an entire Monday playing Go-Go remixes/cool and fly/down-to-earth/together inseparable

found poetry words utilized from pages 45-46 Jackson, Tiffany D.. Monday's Not Coming. First edition. New York, Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2018

[therevengeoffrankenstein]

'"tryna squeeze into my True Religion denim, mmm, mmm, mmm"'

since i can't eat cheeseburgers normal-sty-le anymore,

i figured you might've given me an accidental

invisible

(helping) hand in pocket, hand in glove....

all that: your absolute shine, your absolution,

a pavlovian sugar pill to cure my ill.

or is too much lack thereof even for a quarter, baby?

good g-d alive, you're a jumping, stumb-l-ing case of light....

blood, cum, blue jeans:

all-american boyhood, g-dhood.

when pushing, undoing buttons reveals me food,

it makes sense i'd put two and two together, babe.

basically, the thing about 'nuts' is right, g-d damn it!

sleep in jeans enough and it does start to feel pretty good.

- ellie revenge

[rosesnvines]

I Wanna Be Free

I wanna be free

From the Ring's influence on me

To return to the Hobbit I used to be

But if these wounds won't leave me

Then I must say goodbye

I wanna be free

Don't say time will fully heal me

I've waited so long to see

But time cannot mend me

So I travel across the sea

I wanna be me again

To be free of this stain

I want to free my mind

And though the Shire is kind

To wipe it from my heart

From the Shire I must part

I wanna be free

So farewell my dearest friends

Here where the Fellowship ends

I leave you with the book I penned

Again, my friends, I have to say

I wanna be free

I wanna be free

I will be free

[explore-blog]

An Almanac of Birds: Divinations for Uncertain Days

[rosyjuly]

Sebastian Vettel and Mick Schumacher, 2022, Silverstone x Self Portrait against Red Wallpaper by Richard Siken

[blackwood4stucky]

the living dead | aspen blackwood

a poetic remix of The Scoundrel & the Gloved Princess by @eternalnoirethevampire for her discord event!

another unofficial offering for my all souls x mcu fusion au series, blade of nightshade, be my strength not my ruin!

The blood that pumps through

thy veins begot the rage that burns bright, a blaze

A cruel mistress is she, time

has always been life’s greatest foe

Blade of time, a lancing ache

immortality, a solitary curse

Kept away from those held dear as the veil closes

suffering long as consciousness fades with the seasons

Slumber sinks into pale, Irish flesh

ripping the future away with the sting of death

Loss presented like a gift, such permanence

The hour of wakefulness escapes like a hare

Time has no respect for those that grieve

Passion with no place to go

But what is grief, if not love persevering?

An eternity spent without someone to love

Oh time, suffering the sting of absent love for centuries

When will salvation be granted

Yearning to uncover these mysteries, there is desire in released serenity

Oh liquid fire, oh sunshine and air,

why do you push away thy metaled moon?

Do this and it will be your doom.

read on ao3 and sqwa

[ruminate88]

“Dancing With The Enemy”

”I’m depressed”, she exclaimed!

“You’re too beautiful to be depressed”, he replied with undertones of jealousy and the need for control over her.

His inability to be emotionally mature or empathetic towards her mental health, made him uncomfortable with her cries for help. Then suddenly he found the crack needed within the conversation to flip the script to his advantage and use the vulnerable but sad and heart broken woman. He continued to praise her beauty until she became at ease with him and then he talked to her like a dog. She blindly mistook it for support of her mental health and body. She gladly accepted his praise and allowed him to mistreat every part of her. Hoping for his love and acceptance.

The next day the woman awoke in bliss. Reminiscing the night before. Memories of the way he praised her body and made her feel high above the clouds. She gazed at her phone re-reading the older messages. Missing him and patiently awaiting for him to awake and say he misses her too. To her unfortunate disappointment though, all she received when he awoke was a book all about what a slut she is and how terrible of a friend she is too. Her heart broke once more and she quickly regretted the night before.

In her attempts to understand his motives and feelings, she let herself fall through the cracks of his lies. Her body tensed and she forgot all reality. Where was she even? Did she eat? Was she still alive and breathing? The chaos and turmoil that surrounded her was foggy and clouding her judgments. How could she possibly understand this man and make him love and accept her? Did he not think she was so beautiful? How could he use her the night before and then hate her so deeply the next morning? Where did all this confusion and frustration come from? Nothing ever made sense with him….

and that’s my story. Opening up to someone I thought was my friend even though we broke up but truly, I was dancing with the enemy. ❤️‍🩹

[haikumixtape]