Wednesday 16 April 2014

OULIPOST# 16: CHIMERA: CYFRI' R GEIFR*

Wednesday April 16 prompt is
'The chimera of Homeric legend – lion’s head, goat’s body, treacherous serpent’s tail – has a less forbidding Oulipian counterpart. It is engendered as follows. Having chosen a newspaper article or other text for treatment, remove its nouns, verbs and adjectives. Replace the nouns with those taken in order from a different work, the verbs with those from a second work, the adjectives with those from a third.'

What I'm learning from being an Ouliposter without much time,  is that if it doesn't work in the hour I have, then try and make it something else or abandon it for now. I can always come back to it. For me this month is more about learning new ways to write poetry than the finished outcome.
      Today, I used four sources: an article in the Guardian newspaper,'China cancels human rights dialogue with Britain over 'interference'';Good Housekeeping,May 2014, 'Stamp Out Sexism'; Natural World, Spring 2014, 'Skokholm Diary', and the Western Mail, April 12, 'Two singers, one voice.' 
      It just wouldn't work, so I decided to write a Haiku, and have come up with two- one to use for tomorrow's Haikuisation.


Cerys Matthews makes music

Eight stuck in a lift
Counting the Goats, a Welsh song
Nowt so dear as folk.

* 'Cyfri'r Geifr', a Welsh song title,'Counting the Goats,' Sung in rounds increasingly quickly. Breaks the ice and gets you tongue-tied.  

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