Saucy and overbold beldam of death,
mistress of charms, spite and wrath
loves not you.
Vessels and spells provide
a dismal and a fatal end.
Upon the corner of the moon,
artificial sprites raise little spirit
in a foggy cloud.
Kim M. Russell, 2017
My response to dVerse Poets Pub Meeting the Bar: Look What I Found! Erasure Poetry
Victoria is our host this Thursday. She says it’s time to go back to a poetic form that we last discussed in 2013: erasure, a form of found poetry or found art created by erasing words from an existing text in prose or verse and framing the result on the page as a poem. The words are there—all we need to do is reconstruct them. This evening, we are invited to share an erasure poem. Victoria suggests choosing a text that will work for us — prose or poetry — and mix it up a bit, for example create a Haibun from an existing poem or use a novel to write a sonnet – and a form isn’t necessary.
I erased parts of Hecate’s monologue from Macbeth Act 3 Scene 5 in anticipation of All Hallows Eve.
Kim, this is just a perfect anticipation of the coming of the 31st. I must confess, my Shakespeare is way too weak–wasn’t taught it well in school–but MacBeth is one play I remember and your extraction is so accessible. On a side note, I do prefer “All hallows eve” to halloween, as we refer to it over here.
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Thank you, Victoria. I agree about ‘All Hallows Eve’ – it has a darkly magical ring to it! 😉
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How delightful! You caught the spirit of the season with this.
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Thank you, Viv! I love spookiness.
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Wow–even culled the Shakespeare comes through, feeling nearly iambic; nice capture. Lots of spooky imagery from the Bard’s darker plays.
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Thanks Glenn!
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I love the last three lines.
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Thank you, Apple!
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BEAUTIFUL erasure poem! I especially love these lines
“Upon the corner of the moon,
artificial sprites raise little spirit
in a foggy cloud.”
Very well done! The bard would be pleased 🙂
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Thank you, Lill! 🙂
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What an eerie and amazing piece of writing.. love how you distilled the season into something that will make it hard to sleep on all hallows eve.
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Thank you, Bjorn! And it falls on your Poetics night. I wonder what terrifying prompt you have in mind for us…
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I like this line: “artificial sprites raise little spirit”
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🙂
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Wonderful take on Shakespeare, I like those artificial sprites too.
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Thanks Alison!
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That opening is a serious tongue-twister: “Saucy and overbold beldam.”
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🙂
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Well it would be hard to raise spirits in a foggy cloud! Great blackout poetry!
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Have you ever seen the film ‘The Fog’?
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Your erasures are much neater than mine :). I enjoyed this very much
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🙂
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Completely taken in.
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Thanks Jill!
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Love the title, opening lines and darkly tones Kim ~ Well done ~
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Thank you, Grace!
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Spooky in the spirit of the week! Nicely done
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Thank you!
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Wonderfully wicked!
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Thank you!
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HI Kim
Especall loved these lines “Vessels and spells provide
a dismal and a fatal end.” Really sets the mood and halloween tone:)
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🙂
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Perfect fit for the prompt and the season.
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Brava.. Shakespeare would concur. 😎😎😎🥀🥀🥀🥀🥀
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Perfectly eerie!
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Thank you, Al!
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Love this! fits well the spookiness of Halloween around the corner
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Thank you kindly!
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wonderful!
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Thank you kindly!
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