the w o r m s were out today

Josh Datko

and I recently shared some words on the pacing and musicality of words in a “silent” digital space. He has been doing an amazing job advocating for more spoken poetry on this platform via championing VoiceOver poems and doing his weekly livestream which is such a great time of celebrating poetry and delighting in community. If you are not subscribed to him, do yourself a favor. He is a champion of poets of all kinds and a master of alliteration in his own verse, as well as a poignant anti-war speaker.

Our conversation prompted me to experiment with form in terms of pacing by spacing out words and joining them together in a manner that is meant to guide the speed of the reader to develop a kind of musicality. I deliberated on whether to include a VoiceOver component, and elected not to to put the focus on whatever rhythm the words evoke in your own reading of the words as they appear. The “rules” are simple: try your best to not sight read the words as you may normally, but scan the lines, voicing their sounds as they appear if presented on a scroll with a consistent speed. But as “rules” are in scare quotes and most of these publications are shouting into the void, do what thou will, dear reader.

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the w o r m s were out to day
c o i ling about in light of h a r d rains

I wonder whatitmusthavebeenlike
to have d u g so deepbeneaththedrought
to that sweetspot of m o i s t u r e
only to then h e e d (by cosmicvibrations)
the del u g e fromabove

I smoked a cigar and I spat in a cup
I still smokedthatsamecigar and s p a t on the patio
wherethewormswere f l a i l i n g

at times spit
at time ash
hit their writhing flesh

I felt for-a-moment
a bit morose, but-then

I remembered my k i n s h i p totheworm
and yet ratherthanlikeabrother, outofspite

I smote him

I grabbedathisdeaththroes and t h r e w him in the compost bin

suchislife or s o they s i n g
come again
some other day