Today’s prompt on http://www.napowrimo.net is to take a poem of Emily Dickinson’s, remove all the dashes, and find my own breaks and pauses. I chose “I Dwell in Possibility,” because I have a plaque with the ‘I’ missing, that makes it a command in my bathroom. I had it for several years before I thought of looking up the originating poem to see its context (which really, is quite out of character for me as a curious English teacher/librarian!) Anyway, here’s Emily’s original:
I dwell in Possibility – (466)
I dwell in Possibility –
A fairer House than Prose –
More numerous of Windows –
Superior – for Doors –
Of Chambers as the Cedars –
Impregnable of eye –
And for an everlasting Roof
The Gambrels of the Sky –
Of Visitors – the fairest –
For Occupation – This –
The spreading wide my narrow Hands
To gather Paradise –
.
And here’s my re-interpretation of it, after removing her dashes.
.
I dwell in Possibility – (466)
I dwell in Possibility,
a fairer House than
Prose more numerous,
of Windows Superior,
for Doors Of Chambers,
as the Cedars Impregnable,
of eye And
for an everlasting Roof
The Gambrels
of the Sky Of Visitors,
the fairest For Occupation.
This The spreading wide,
my narrow Hands To gather
Paradise
.
That’s not really very exciting, so I felt the need to mix it up a little more, so here is a re-working of it altogether, using the components as a found poem:
.
Possibility,
I dwell in
Prose
a fairer House
numerous Windows
Superior Doors
Impregnable Chambers,
everlasting Roof:
The Gambrels.
the Sky Of Visitors,
the Cedars fairest of eye And
for my narrow Hands an
Occupation To gather
Paradise
spreading This wide,
In possibility.
.
.
It was an interesting exercise, but not very inspiring creatively, so I will probably post another poem later today. Keep an eye out!
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Shawn L. Bird 