I wanted a form which would introduce an arbitrary
element recurringly, with a hidden significance. So
starting with a text i once created using a computer
to randomize words ("Star Grope"), i numbered the words
& created a second matrix of numbered slots. The positions
that correspond to prime numbers in the matrix, i circled.
Then, for each prime-numbered matrix position, i wrote in
the words of "Star Grope" consecutively (in green ink). The
result was a fill-in-the-blanks form with every so often
a word that had to be used. The ensuing matrix can be used
for poems of any length or structure. After i've written
a poem using one part of the matrix, the next poem i write
begins where the last one left off. And at the end of the
matrix i begin again where i started...
The first set of matrix poems i wrote were in ABAB iambic
pentameter quatrains. The next ones, however, i put in a
syllabilistic meter of my own invention called "snowflakes":
each stanza has lines of 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 syllables, in
any order. Further constraints suggested themselves: parts
of this series omit the letter E; some are composed using
only the words from a magnetic poetry set (& a few parts
use only the words from that set that lack an E). After a
single pass through the matrix, i sometimes would let words
from the previous matrix show through...
The entirety i have called "The Mothman Elegies". It is a
series that now, after three passes of "makrugh", seems not
quite at the point of changing into something else; & so i
am making these notes for closure, & to suggest further
exploration to others in search of a new way of constructing
longer poems.
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