Today’s prompt (“as always optional”) required both listening to and reading James Schuyler’s “Hymn to Life” and then doing a minimum 20 minutes of free-write, following certain checklist criteria outlined by Hoa Nguyen. Nguyen says to select and use “those that further your present tense engagement.” Two items from the checklist are “Include at least four colours” and “Introduce the occasional 3- and 4-word sentence.” There are 17 items on the checklist.

unground endpaper glass

this is an old book and the cover is buckram. it smells
like the old library it comes from. it is resting
on a round card table by a window where there are
raindrops sliding down the glass–just a few–in
no hurry, and the bright light from the overcast
sky puts a light shadow of a few of the drops
on the opened pages of the book. page 128
has a trickle painting the word “filigree” on one
line and then the phrase “traipse to” on the next.
the girl sitting at the table
closes the book. opens just the cover.
she sees a wild color-chaos inside–she
doesn’t know what endpapers are. “oh!”
comes with her startlement. she then remembers
being in a sweets-shop
and seeing a pattern
on what her mum called “napoleons.”
mum explained that a knife is drawn
through the still-warm icing
and that makes the pattern.
this pattern must have been made
similarly, but it is much wilder–violet
violent, orange oreganoing at the redder chimes beneath,
a jagjagjag as if static were choreographed
by a balletmaster. ballet. apices of pirouettes
framing a cathedrally jukebox shape.

the girl wonders why on Earth such a riot
occurs just inside the front cover. what does it
have to do with the story? is it
sideshow? is it the cleansing
of the mind’s palate? is contrast
deliberate, to give the reader relief
from this howling cacophony, when the page is
turned and the quiet, stately title arrives?

she does not know, but she does know
she is done with the book
and is now ready to paint,
or color,
or draw.

she looks out the window,
then at it. its smooth
soothing glass
is her title page,
the endpaper riot
of green and greenblue, orange and burnt sienna,
violet and VIOLET
quieted just enough.

she closes the book and goes to her room.