Today's poem is inspired by masks used by Revolutionary spies, which I have recently re-discovered by watching TV. AMC's Turn has a bunch of cool spy techniques detailed on its paper-cut intro, and uses one of the mask techniques in a recent episode. The mask pictured here works best with handwritten work, so the poem I've worked on today is more of a code.
The poem is also inspired by harmonics, as was yesterday's poem. AP Psychology students had an ear full of me last week when we looked at perceptual illusions, including harmonic illusions and psycho-audio hallucinations. Go here for a link about Diana Deutsch's audio illusions. So some of the poem is about saying words in the right key or tone, to open that magical door. The words Abracadabra are meaningless, and it is not the words but the sounds the syllables make that make the magic happen, as with poetry.
Here's a sampling of today's poem:
Oh, my middle sleep! The grease our skins make under the sheets,
nightsweat in the beamed dark, fire lit shades drawn closed,
the theatre a candle makes of dark places, anything ordinary
transforms. Every other word is truth, to cipher the weal
take a pen and scratch out the eyes. To shade, to shade
what have we been voted into or out of? My ghastly
toe-headed conspirator, the pale is the knife wiped clean.
Vibrate with me as we speak the vowels which are gauges,
valves for your sweet breath, your sweat breath and mine.
Laws unmasked as they are made. Unmake men and take them
to edge a field, to meet a faceless man and share a bag of coins.
You can read the whole thing here when it is posted later today.
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