Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Dinopoems are the tea-killer. This is a good thing.

Many a cup of tea has been ruined by writing. All too often I look up from my work to an "ah shit" moment, when I realize that my cup or pot had been steeping for a very very long time. It's cold and bitter and I have to start again.

My second attempt at tea is now brewing. But that also means my work has been very engrossing. And of course dinosaurs poems would be!

The first one I wrote last week about a child pretending to be a dinosaur, snore, isn't very good, although still awesome for its dinosaur reference, but it did get the ball rolling on a few others.
And these other two dinosaur poems are fun, exploring alternative reasons why dinosaurs went extinct. Flowers, I tell you!

I've learned about "the abominable mystery" which, according to wikipedia (my very bestest and smartest friend, and also, being on the internet, never ever wrong) was what Charles Darwin called the one problem of his theory of evolution, that being the apparently sudden appearance of relatively modern flowers in the fossil record. And I would think that the sudden appearance of flowers during the cretaceous period, which is also the period of dinosaur decline, would have driven their tiny minds insane, seeing as how a million bursts of colour suddenly appeared in an otherwise green and brown world. So that's my theory, and I think it holds up.

So the first poem of what may work out into a series, since the idea right now seems fun, is about the first flower blooming, and this event being seen by a dinosaur, and the dinosaur I guess going crazy. This poem is done, and I love it like I haven't loved a poem for some time... so it's probably pretty inaccessible... le sigh.

The second poem was inspired by a sentence I came across on wikipedia as I was researching: "The general assumption is that the function of flowers, from the start, was to involve other animals in the reproduction process." My poem, which I haven't yet decided is done or not, explores the idea that dinosaurs were maybe just too big and/or dumb to fill that role of pollinator. Its a fun piece, with many parts that I enjoy. I worry though that it may, um, falter into the sentimental. It's hard not to get sentimental about dinosaurs though!

And since I enjoy poems that mesh well together, and could work as a series or perhaps a chapbook, I think I'll continue exploring other methods of dino-death. I like to think I'm honouring the fallen beasts...

2 comments:

  1. "wikipedia (my very bestest and smartest friend, and also, being on the internet, never ever wrong)"

    of course, this could also refer to me, couldn't it???

    I look forward to reading about dinosaur demise a la le fleur (or is it la fleur?)...

    remind me to lend you my new movie - about DRAGONS!! almost as good as dinosaurs

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  2. Al Purdy had the flower/dinosaur fixation thing going as well: lots of poems on flowers and a few on dinosaurs here and there. He brought it all together in "In the Early Cretaceous".

    Looking forward to seeing your take on it all!

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