I forgive you
♦ For putting forth only revisions of yourself, with punctuation worked over, instead of the disordered truth, I forgive you. ♦ The stories are here, but [where] are we? ♦ Perhaps we’re slated to ascend to some kind of intelligence that doesn’t need bodies, or clean water, or even air. ♦ Each word becomes a scream. ♦ It’s why I carry matches. ♦
Links above (in red) are quoted text.
Photo by Aziz Acharki on Unsplash
Sentences are powerful. Brian Dillon wrote a whole book about them. Put enough sentences together and you’ll have your own book. Writers tend to collect other people’s sentences. I do. This week’s combistory juxtaposes five I encountered online this week. Nudging you to read the pieces I found them in is the point of this combinatory play. The authors of the sentences, in order of placement, are:
Dilruba Ahmed from her poem “Phase One,” read by Pádraig Ó Tuama on On Being
Martin Shaw in Small Gods
Ellen Bass from her poem “The Big Picture,” read by Amanda Palmer on brainpickings
Christina Tudor-Sideri reviewed by Joseph Schreiber on roughghosts
Carin Makuz at Matilda Magtree, in Details
All five sentences caught my attention, but it’s the first I keep returning to, and the whole of Dilruba Ahmed’s remarkable poem. I’m working on my own list of things I hold against myself. When I’m ready, I intend to set the list on fire. It’s why I carry matches.
Match photo on the commatology homepage is by Gift Habeshaw on Unsplash
2 Responses to “I forgive you”
Leslie, I absolutely love what you’re doing. The combistories are gorgeous (this one, a fave) and the links you provide (I agree, the first line is brilliant… I will get comfy and listen to podcast with pleasure). Thank you so much for all of this!
And I would have never guessed the ‘matches’ line. You make magic out of foundness.
Thanks, Carin! I’m having lots of fun with them. I was so excited when I saw your “matches” sentence – I knew it was just the spark the other sentences needed!
Hope you enjoy(ed) the podcast. It’s a preview of season 2 of Poetry Unbound. Season 1 was being aired (are podcasts “aired”?) when I was with Mom, and I would have been lost without it.