Solara 4-6

 Another week, more of the Solara. I also posted the root poem (Solara .5) that inspired image 1. I had it in a separate document before getting started in earnest.

IV.
Schooled in the ways of the hunt/from miles away/all these opportunities/bring a friend/feast and famine/sunlight echoing from above us/caught in a ripple/we dream this moment/before impact/each day/each night/moon and sun shifting in arrangement/punch in and punch out/seeing the dream and knowing it is a mind’s projector/slapping images on your optic nerve/this vision for you and you alone/no matter who is there with you in this moment/you will wake up with the moon through the window and a cold, empty space on the other side of the bed/

V.

Not quite one time of day/face unrecognizable/what has this hour done to me/I would be willing to scream, were I sure I that I could/what I have been inside for too long/manifesting on the outer reaches of my person/howl to the flight paths of bats/listen for the rumblings of a nocturnal symphony/hear my silent contribution/as wistful note of oration/forgotten before it has left me/

VI.

what was autumn but summer’s dregs/nightfall and the swell of familiar chirps and croaks and bleats and wind swells/another cycle stretched beyond its shelf life/this lasting negative of a photograph expanding into the air-all we see/the image and the reflection/as the dark takes hold and the stars bear witness the movement of the ants below/

Solara .5

 Where would I be without the initial prompt that started the Solara? This is the prompt that generated Solara 1 and became the basis for the continuing process.

grill it/put it to the fire/sear it with the heat reaction/internal/external/absolute and at a minimum//and we’ve been waiting for some sense of closure/some finality on the matter/instead, it’s another slow burning sensation at the outer limits of our own extremities/pins-and-needles-esque/the thermometer will find no purchase/no way to track the errant glow of a body made new through flame/purified in the light/let me sing as the smoke rises/my words will be known/even when the skin droops and melts away and the song becomes a funeral dirge/a fugue/the words a prayer and condemnation/

Solara 1-3

I got the idea for this project from a co-conspirator who explained a process of beer making where someone uses wild yeast and plays with a common beer recipe but allows the various flora and fauna of the previous brews and their interactions with yeast/bacteria to make each common beer unique. The concept of something evolving over time based on previous iterations resonated with me. 

I started playing with AI images as I began constructing what will be the covers to some zines (the first being currently in my possession...but more on that later)/other works. As I worked with our AI overlords, I put a random draft of a poem into the prompt generator and then, using the picture it created as an influence, I wrote a new poem. This has now become something of an obsession. Here are the first 3 iterations of this. I'd love to know what you think about this.

I. 

I could sell you on a fast food dream/let you taste the sweet flame-broiled glory/let you in on a little secret/this dream-for you, for me-comes apart at the wrong temperatures/like an oil painting nightmare/running on the edges/watch as we all fall away/but, under 10 bucks/that right there, you know there’s no room for regret when you’ve got liquidity/riding in style/saving for another day/as the calories reach a high score/you know what we’re saying here, don’t you/

II.

Line ‘em up/like eternity/ill-equipped for a future that can’t be avoided/great celebratory gestures/we are clowns in the finery of business casual/muted pastels and conservative stripe patterns/fueling ourselves with cartoon dream, hometown delicacies/you won’t be able to tell us apart and I won’t be able to tell me apart and no one is going to know a whole lot/anymore/

III.

Denial of laughter/you’ll be in a window frame/observed by shadows/hand drawn spectacle/sharks and minnows where you are both/a silent majority watches you/honking their displeasure as a goose/and what is good for the gander/this was never humorous but my sides are splitting/just the same

thaw

 

/colder questions and answers exist/out there in the great vacuum/maybe/old arrangements of possibility/possibilities even/slide on down this sliding floor/this conveyor belt/slipshod orderings and curated flim flam//

agents of chaos/agents of the tundra/kept frozen-to your place/left to thaw in limited sunshine of another winter day/languid growing season of a few hours//

these answers aren't for anyone/but you/waiting for feeling to return/to the extremities//

pick your poison/glug it down like the first hot drink you've had in an epoch/loud gurgling noises with the other poison sommeliers/a toast to the apothecarial vintage/some kind of death wish complex-maybe/let it fester inside/what was warm is so cold/so much time to live with yourself//

so much time to know it/all//

flag on the field

If you're interested in reading my most recent essay on the EXCELLENT novel Biography of X, click here.

no more resistance to the flowing of this timeline will be allowed after the allotted time for complaints has expired/you've had your change too/you had to file the forms and appropriate permits in triplicate/therefore, none of this should come as a surprise to you/or us/trajectory being what it is/we know the shape of the destination/of the departures/the tangents and the non sequitur/no more distractions from the path we've set into motion long before you're approval or denial was even a factor/even a consideration/the business of fairness and the business of business are inherent to our enterprise/time, our most controllable commodity/dividends influence the minute and the second hand/fly on/fly true/with our blessing and your understanding/being what it is/in all things/constant/with our gratitude on retainer/for every occasion/another cycle/begin/