[Mark McDonnell]

Hi Nemo,

I’ll take “Bingo!” for now, thank you.

Hi Alexandra,

Thanks for giving me your detailed thoughts on this. I think I’ve sorted the technicalities of the epigram out so it passes muster. There is lots of humour and absurdity in the novel and some of that finds its way, however obliquely, into the poem: Bloom on the toilet, Bloom having a biscuit tin thrown at him etc. And the epigram’s inadvertent pun seemed a nice way of showing that one of the other things the book is concerned with is the absurdity and complexity of language itself. I’m glad you like the new title.

I can’t deny that the poem will probably go down better for someone who knows the book pretty well, and even better if they like it ha. I thought it was fantastic. Perhaps if I had been forced to study it, I might think differently. The opening line is a reference to the (fairly famous, I think) opening sentence of the book: “Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a razor and a mirror lay crossed”. And the “from” in the lines

from inner organs, outhouse defecation,
from dodging biscuit tins to spilling seed
on twilit siren sands

just refers back to the previous line’s, “slog from crib to tomb”. They are all events in Bloom’s day that form part of this “slog”.

I’m glad you enjoyed some of this, at least. I realise it’s a fairly niche endeavour.

Hi Rick!

Ha. Hmm. Is the new title a little too florid, do you think? I think I like it…