You square no one, rain and earth
neglect the thrust and seduction of
your repulsive cell. Always adrift in
the same vast night, nobody puts
up a fight and sits tight, cosmos
and black hole of anybody’s wrong
destroying another darkness, horn
effects of addiction, after you miss
each other. Sit it out for the first
time and square no one.
Kim M. Russell, 6th April 2021
My response to dVerse Poets Pub Tuesday Poetics: Flipping Meanings
Lisa is back with a tricky challenge, of which she says the seed was planted long ago and germinated into an idea for ‘opposite’ poems: taking a poem of one’s choice and flipping the script on it, turning it, for example, from a light poem to a dark one, dark to light, happy to sad, sad to happy, and so on.
Lisa Googled it and found a YouTube video, ‘The Opposites Game’ by Brendan Constantine, to inspire us. She reminded us of another way to ‘flip the script’ through the Diamante form, with an example by Marie Summers.
Lisa has given us three options, and I chose one of my own poems, a recent one, to flip. It wasn’t easy, I had to try several choices until the flipped poem looked and felt right – and then I decided to get it into a square shape, like the circle one. Talk about making things difficult for myself!
writing in north norfolk 
excellent Kim – your flipping created some gorgeous lines into what reads like abstract poetry
” cosmos
and black hole of anybody’s wrong
destroying another darkness”
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Thank you, Laura.
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You have really raised the bar with this one, Kim! I love; “Always adrift in the same vast night, nobody puts up a fight and sits tight, cosmos and black hole of anybody’s wrong destroying another darkness.”💝💝
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Thanks so much, Sanaa! 🙂
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Kim, just looking at the two poems, they give such different impressions. Your circle poem flows into an organic whole, but the square looks confined and sharp-edged. I love the term “squaring” someone! Wonderful response to the challenge, Kim!
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Thank you so much, Lisa!
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You’re very welcome.
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This is so clever how you squared your circle poem into a solid cube, both in form and content! This is definitely the flip-side of your warm-hearted circle poem.
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Cheers Ingrid!
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I love what you’ve done with this prompt. The circle-into-square is genius. Very nicely done. You nailed it!
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Thank you!
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Kudos for all the hard work. I love the the spacing of the last two lines to maintain the square shape. Both poems resonate, and are clarion in their message. The dark poem does have sharp edges, and the circle poem creates positive motion.
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Thank you,, Glenn. I like what you said about the sharp edges and positive motion.
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Excellent take, and you proved it is possible to put a square peg in a round hole, as long as they are opposites.
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Cheers Ron!
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I love the shaped format – square versus the circle one. Sit it out and square no one, I dig the life’s message. This is well done Kim.
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Thank you so much, Grace!
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Marveloso, KR. Conceptually and shapely incongruous, but, melded together on a single page, dually enhanced. Awesome non-combo combination.
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Grazioso, Ron!
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Wow! You certainly fit that circle in a square peg! Excellent. I had a time reading the circle!
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Thank you, Mary!
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This is exquisite, exciting, and surprising poetry Kim. Well written my friend. OK, I gotta ask — how do you get the poem to go in a circle? Love it!
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I’m so glad you like it, Rob! There are a few sites on the Internet that let you add text and they turn it into shapes for you. This time I used festisite.com.
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Oh you aced this prompt. The circle to square. The flip and the messages. Yeah, you out did yourself her and did it well.
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Thanks so much, Raivenne!
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I can only say that this is my kind of cleverness – I wish I had thought of this, Kim.
❤
David
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Aw, thank you David!
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Clever! (K)
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Very nicely done. I like the way your took the circle poem and straightened it out!! :>)
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Thanks Dwight!
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Wow, Kim! You did a number on this prompt, that’s for sure. I adore the shape and positive energy and hope of the circle poem….Maybe I’m saying it wrong, but it makes me feel rosie! 🙂 You’ve done the opposite in shape and then in tone and words as well.
The new poem, in a square makes me feel the opposite: dank, dark, negative, depressed. So yes…you’ve achieved it! To me….there’s a positive energy in the circle and the square is more stagnant – a repulsed cell.
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Thanks Lill, you got it,and I thought you would!❤
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