‘Strength and Disgrace’ Strike 4/4: Transformations Poems (Book 9)

TRANSFORMATIONS

February 2013-March 2014

17 poets, 15 months, creating 1 contemporary reworking of Ovid’s Metamorphoses

See the Transformations Page for more details or the ‘Present Collaborations’ Tab

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Poems Inspired by Book 9

.Featuring:

Richard Biddle and Nat Hall

_

Becoming Tree

by Richard Biddle

.

as the labyrinthine brain shreds into a maze of mutations
and unburdens itself of language
as the gnashing teeth clack like glockenspiel blocks
and varnished nails vanish in a panic of burnished light;

imagine no-footedness, the cessation of journeying
imagine an amnesty of grateful arms gracefully
embracing the birds’ hollow bones
imagine not imagining

as the realisation of non-self engulfs this body with
molecular precision
as death’s imitation spreads its follicular canopy
above nibbling insects and spongy humus

imagine a factory, a pulp-plant manufacturing seedpods
imagine a container, a casket for nascent fungi
a treasury of lumber
imagine an artificial jungle

then see that this is the place where ivy climbs
it’s lost patterns
where frond, stalk and needle, sap strength
from Rain’s plummeting vitality

where fingerless stumps leaf through
Sun’s, illuminated manuscript

and where Wind, emboldened and deathless,
voices its enduring testament
to this beatific
synthesis

.

Transformer

by Nat Hall

.

 

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You can find more about Richard and Nat here:

.

Richard Biddle

http://writings43.blogspot.co.uk/

https://twitter.com/littledeaths68

.

Nat Hall

http://nordicblackbird.weebly.com/index.html

https://twitter.com/nordicblackbird