Corn Maze Poem

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Start at the top left, and follow the various branches until you reach the bottom right. Wrong ways are not wrong, they are simply lines of the poem that are not yet its emotional conclusion.

Calligrams, or poems in which the words are arranged in a pattern that pertains to the subject of the poem, are less popular in English, but have a rich tradition in other languages. Arabic calligraphy has a strong visual appeal, that can amplify the meaning of the words or simply present them in masterfully ornate ways. Some of the most famous French calligrams are by the poet Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918), whose Calligrammes were published shortly after his death.

While I am interested in how words look on the page, usually I don’t write calligrams. But sometimes a subject–in this case, losing and finding my way in a corn maze–really lends itself to visual play.

Rain, South End, Boston

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September, the first month of fall. All of this rain we’ve had lately has me remembering the wet bricks of the South End in Boston, where I used to work. This is a slice-of-life… images and a mood I experienced on my evening commute, walking down Waltham and Clarendon streets towards Copley.