It's time to reveal the inspiration behind my last drawing (see Interactive Exercise to catch up). I did my best to pick an obscure subject in order to provoke a wide range of responses, and the comments didn't disappoint. In fact, I like many of the suggested titles better than my own.
A couple weeks ago I received a very curious piece of mail. It arrived in a wax-sealed envelope, and consisted of a single small sheet with a message composed in an ancient script. Only after some Internet-based research was I able to identify the computer-generated font as a cuneiform alphabet. After several fruitless hours spent trying to translate it, I discovered by reading a few other blogs that it was most likely part of a promotion for an upcoming HBO series.
The drawing was my attempt to replicate in typically fractured style one of the letters found on that mysterious missive (you can see images of the four-different mailings that went out on this site named after the Japanese word for blood ... the one I received is on the far right). As it turned out, the words held much more sway over my imagination while their likely meaning and origin remained unkown, and I think that speaks on some level to the power of art, language and myth. I haven't pursued the mailing's meaning any further out of a desire to maintain some sense of lingering uncertainty.
I really appreciate all of the very creative titles offered up, and to show my gratitude I'll be writing a series of poems inspired by each participant's take on the drawing's meaning (with a fitting attribution and dedication to their authors). To get the ball rolling, here's the piece I built around the phrase initially on my mind.
A cryptic script
By Francis Scudellari
A cryptic script
By unknown hand
Knowingly penned
Aged symbols dusted,
New-pulled from yawning gaps
Of a bookish slumber
Inky smooth, slithering lines capped
With ever hungry heads, feeding
On preyed-upon partners' trailed ends
Intricately cut keys
Unchained, distance-scattered
From forgetting's locked vault
Treasured meaning
Now only found
In not knowing
6 comments:
Wow! Where do your words come from? They flow continuously.
Francis, my second title is nearer , the "Emblazoned Emblem", but the first one is way off (grins).
Thanks for posting. It was fun and a thought-provoking exercise.
What a cool poem with a really good back story. I like it.
Runes* ;)) Peace*
@Jena I'm glad you had fun with it. Emblazoned Emblem was a very good choice. I don't think any of the titles was way off ... the image was amorphous enough to fit a lot of descriptions.
@Mike Thanks! Having a good back story makes a poem much easier to write.
@Billy I think I could write a poem called Runes much easier than one called Orgazoom, but that doesn't mean I won't try to do the latter.
Lovely work! Just looked at your writing and wondered if you would like to enter it into our writer’s blog contest. We are looking for quality posts that are either fiction or about writing and hope you would like to participate in our friendly Writers Offering Our Finest (W.O.O.F) competition. It really is lovely work.
Plot Dog
@Plotdog Thanks for the invitation, and I'd be happy to enter something in the next contest.
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