Some lessons learned

1) Really, do keep the original texts snappy, some of the transformations effected in February were tortuous.

2) Writing through heals most ills

3) Never attempt a homovocalic translation after a lipogram in e. That way madness lies.

February

This February morning
he is at odds
with the sunshine
the warmth, unseasonal
is defined
in terms of space and
a punctured, occasional silence
there is to be
no smooth transition
to the afternoon where
a dissident prince
juggles, variously
with catalan
bombs with
people disappeared,
spirited
away with
a picture on a vase
anti-semitism
the failure
of sustainable
ideologies
with you, and me
and everyone we
know as
there is either
no reason for that boat
to be there or
no reason
for those houses
flat, patched red
and blue to be sat
on the livid green
where a system in
all defiance
of the shifting logic beneath
is starting
through the great sheets
right-angled out
of frames of reference
two, reclining before
small images in
a large space
and in this house
where we
are alone and part
of a larger world
the snow,
skewed in
its descent
is at the mercy
of a wind
numbing as a
pulled tooth the
bitter rawness
of a crashing moon
caught and held
above a
rush of water slaking
the earth’s thirst
alive, unwary as oil
set, icy atolls
pile up inert
elude actors that stand
in gelid sentry
file upon rank, each
awful, used
vocation as I see
there is one door,
locks as if it only
closes:
override the art epoch now
ailing new lie
uneasy iou
a fatal coil
endow their lateral, tepid fire
at a clip
as if under a
coastal shelf in
braille writing writs
hearing urgent
dour, salient items spool quiet
quick off usable
papered notes
there is neither
a reason for this wreck
to be absent or
a reason
for these ruins
lumpen, rent blue
and red to dance
below the muted pink
where flux,
complaisant
with the constant
chaos above
is stopping
through a planar flat
a sharp turn out
of your own syntax
two lying in front
of tiny sigils in a void
on this spot
no-one but you
and I
working parts
of a vast codicil
we see sleet
sleet reels
skewed descent
the zephyr
freezes the
green
see the dry, the
sleepy meet
wetness
losing structure
it peels slips
thin tension the
soil/surface
accord disrupted
a torrent
a hail
sound of violins
no violas
hone it
a keen clarity yes
we call on feel
woken early it
heaves toward day
alien sky
this cheque in lieu
of their limpid ire
at the lip
of a thunderer
most often
found citing skits
cheering resurgent
scores, at cool sites
next to wound cables
capering unseen
there’s no reason
for this absence or
for these ruins
dancing blue and red
as order returns
above
done with this
apartment its
edges its
assembled inhabitants
your own framework
deceit before nothing
on this mark
no-one but you
and I
singing harmony
making rules
blind to the sun
its stillness its
direct ascension
the motionless air
warming the indigo
blind
to water to
the wakeful
spurning the thirsty

Constraints: some thoughts as they occur

Homovocalism

Homovocalic translation excites me. The mind tries to solve the problem of fitting consonants around the naked vowels and words suggest themselves which otherwise never might "He is at odds/ with the sunshine" transforms into "set, icy atolls / pile up inert." Because if this sudden, unexpected beauty it is a more thrilling translation to actually work with than more prosaic, problem-solving ones such as a lipogram in e. Does this set up an intuitive constraint / logical constraint opposition?

Year in a poem, further definition of working practices

1) Initial texts to be simple and uncluttered - otherwise mutation via constraint and structural processes will only serve to overcomplicate the already complicated. February so far involves one variation on January's basic structure in that one of the initial texts comes from a lexical rather than visual source. So I can conclude that:

2) These working practices are to remain fluid and dynamic. It is a year long experiment. What works to my purposes stays. What doesn't, doesn't.

3) Writing through is essential. Though the texts are altered I am taking a stance in opposition to entirely random methods. It is imperative that the end text flow and communicate to the reader (this is a clarification of the last post), otherwise it is merely constraint for constraint's sake.