Rivals make haste I hear. Give good
honest soldier, belief is an apparition.
Come sit down awhile, westward, beating one–
Peace, speak to it with wonder. It would be spoken to
and will not answer fantasy.
Sensible and true, king to thyself
ambitious on the ice twice— now jump
this dead martial watch. In my opinion,
our state toils the subject, the land,
brazen for implements of war—
whose sore task divides the laborer
the day. The whisper goes as you know
to combat. Our known world as a sealed
compact, ratified by law— life, lands,
seized against inheritance. Now,
mettle hot and full in skirts, list lawless: food,
enterprise, our state. Strong hand take it
the main motive/ the source/ the chief head—
comes armed. The question of these wars,
the mind’s eye in little graves, the sheeted dead
as stars, trains of fire, disaster, the sun.
Influence stands sick to doomsday. Eclipse—
fear, fates, omen. Earth, blast me!
The cock crows. Stay and speak. Don’t strike.
Stand. Tis’ here— We do wrong! Violence as air.
Malicious mockery started a guilty thing. Trumpet—
lofty, shrill-sounding. Sea or fire earth or air extravagant and erring—
confine this sent object. Wholesome-power, gracious-time,
walk our watch tonight, celebrate dawning all nightlong.
Needful Loves, our duty? Let’s run every sense.
The initial lexicon for this poem was generated by highlighting bits of text from act one scene one of Hamlet. In the actual text which I came across in the street I panted over the unused text w/ water color . In some cases I cut slips of paper and re wrote the words w/ a ballpoint pen and pasted them into the text. The poem has scene many revisions since it's initial draft by adding and reordering text as well as shifting line and stanza breaks.
Posted by: Valyntina Grenier | 08/09/2009 at 10:01 AM