Grammar of Happiness

I remember you
remember me
remember when I lost my mind
I remember it well

making music
making bread
making money
making my way downtown

and then what
and then the sun rave song
and then we danced
and then he kissed me

poet for our times
poet for hire
poet for love
poet wife

dream of a lost shoe
a lost bag
lost friend
lost child

Kim M. Russell, 8th October 2020

Missing Child Images, Stock Photos & Vectors | Shutterstock

My response to dVerse Poets Pub Meeting the Bar: Lists that Google Gives Us, also linked to Poets and Storytellers United Writers’ Pantry

This Thursday, Björn is hosting with a fun prompt. We are playing with lists again and, to make life a little easier, he thought we should do what everyone does when we don’t have a clue: just ask Google.

He reminds us that, a number of years ago, we did something similar using googlism, but this time we will be using Google’s autocomplete function. For example, if we start to type ‘Love is a…’, Google suggests various endings, which we can either use as a complete list or we might pick one or two of the lines.  We can use this technique with any starting point and go on as long as we want, editing it, massaging it, and posting it any way that we see fit.

To find some inspiration, I looked at the titles of some Carol Ann Duffy poems and partially entered them, some of which I included to make it a truly found poem:
The Grammar of Light
I Remember Me
Making Money
And Then What
Poet for Our Times
Dream of a Lost Friend

74 thoughts on “Grammar of Happiness”

  2. This is incredibly evocative, Kim 🙂 I especially resonate with; “making bread/making money/making my way downtown.” Life is such a roller coaster of emotions and challenges. 💝

    Liked by 3 people

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  6. This is excellent, Kim!

    “remember when I lost my mind
    I remember it well”

    I think so many can relate to this. I love the togetherness of this poem and how it starts to turn darker in the final stanza. Wow. Beautifully written.

    Liked by 2 people

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    1. Thank you, Lucy. The first stanza hinted at darkness too, which links to the final line, a situation I went through twice. I did lose my mind for a bit – until she was found.

      Liked by 1 person

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  9. I enjoyed the process and the found poem Kim. Somehow this part resonates with me:

    I remember you
    remember me
    remember when I lost my mind
    I remember it well

    Title is creative – love it!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  10. kaykuala
    dream of a lost shoe
    a lost bag lost friend
    lost child

    Love the throwback to instances of despair and desperation as a poet thrives in such episodes that tug at the emotions. Great ideas come from there Great thinking Kim!

    Hank

    Liked by 1 person

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  15. Pingback: Grammar of Happiness — writing in north norfolk (Reblog) – The Midlode Mercury

  18. Beautifully inspired, Kim! The repetition works so well to reinforce the cycles of life, love, loss, I must look your poet Carol Ann Duffy up. Any poem to start off with as an introduction?

    Liked by 1 person

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  21. Hi Kim, I am a day late getting around to reading other peoples work. This prompt was confusing but I finally found what I was trying to say. I really like what you did here with these little quartets of poems. Good job on the prompt.

    Liked by 1 person

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  28. Slightly under the weather, (and admittedly unmotivated) I opted to skip the GOOGLE LIST challenge. Now that I read YOUR fine work, KR, I know I made the right choice. I could NEVER measure up.

    Great stuff!

    Liked by 1 person

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  30. Like Colleen, I think those lost shoes say everything. Even before we get to the lost child, the pain is thick in the lines. I can imagine the face of the speaker going through her list of thoughts and feels, remembering…

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  32. “Remember when I lost my mind” … how well I remember the time I turned a deaf ear to my inner voice, ignored my moral compass, and paid dearly for my indiscretion. (I’ll put that back now in the vault where it resides and is rarely reconsidered.) Your poem was evocative, Kim!

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  34. So much I find intriguing about this poem of yours Kim (and what an engaging prompt, right?). I love the title….I’m reminded of the old Grammar books. I find this almost tells a story of the writer….a biographical sketch perhaps? But then we can say that when we write, aren’t we telling our thoughts so in a way, isn’t that always a “biographical sketch” at the time of writing? I find the illustration of the pink shoe mysterious, sad, evocative, making me wonder what the story of it is. Really liked this post, Kim!

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Thank you, Lill, and you are right that there are autobiographical traces in this poem. I’m not sure how they go there, as I had no control of the Google results. 😊

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