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The middle name starts with a W. People would ask, “What’s the W stand for?” and often they thought they heard this in reply: “Whatever you say it is, it’ll be right.” But what was actually said was, “Whatever you say it is, it’ll be Wright.”

“Wright” means “maker.” In my more pompous moments I have said it means “Creator.” But its original meaning referred mostly to things of wood; thus were dubbed Shipwrights and Wheelwrights. Later, Playwrights. Perhaps one fine day Dreamwright will be a legitimate profession. One may dream.

As a Wright, it is incumbent upon me to make things. Here is something I made in September of 2005, via the process described a couple of posts ago as “the superheated glory of RAKU:”

001And here is something I made in July of 2008, and “digitally remastered” just this morning:

002

The text is a triple-acrostic sonnet that goes like this:

Full fathom five to fifty off the reef
For all the Captain’s faithful to his staff
Onsurgent waves tall as a tall Giraffe
Obsess, convulse, and bloom like an O’Keeffe

Let’s pack it in lads this is so unreal
Let’s lash the sail and say that I’m a fool
Let’s learn our lesson and go back to school
Let’s NOT feed lampreys–sucks to be a meal

O MY, spake Bo’s’n–I’m already Jello
O LORD cried Brother–I donwanna halo
Whoopee! said Zooey–why so bleakly stay low
Why Shore said SureShot we’ll be coolly mellow

West of the Sun, Wise are the Woken Few
Whip out the World Wide Web O Brothers New

I love that I have made two such diverse-but-not-opposite things. About the poem I have a perspective just shy of six years from its creation, telling me that despite its adroitness of meter, rhyme and storytelling within the straitjacket of the acrostic form, scholars of the future will not take it seriously due to its scattershot clownishness. That’s moot, though: Not only did I make it, but it reflects my mind with a good transparency. And so in conclusion, ye Creatives, ye Makers, ye Wrights–go thou and do likewise, with my blessings and bonhomie!

 

The words will come first for this one, the image last. The image won’t last but some of the words might.

NOTE: Like American Raku, American Haiku does not adhere to the rules of its Japanese namesake. I am a native-born citizen of the United States of America. The only rule I adhere to for my own “Haiku” is that it have a five-syllable line followed by a seven-syllable line followed by a concluding five-syllable line. They’re succinct!

the baggage unclaim’d
by conscientious thinkers
need not be opened

blink outside the box
sink rapidly to moisten
think or swim; you’re Choice

the fog is meringue
in the middle distance, a
surrounding scrim close

if life’s but a dream
then dreams are life subroutines
else life’s but a glitch

insomniac x:
why zee? DOUBLE you be, see?
just no-bud D saw.

the Road Less Traveled
may be dangerous or dull
better ask around

PAIN is not a gift
TORTURE is not an art form
Respect must be paid

unstressed syllables
are the sorbets of verses
they cleanse the pallette

friendly host zombie
chowing down on Ringo Starr:
who wants a d r u m s t i c k?

exclusivity
and loneliness may well go
hand in empty hand

5-7-5 is
an aggregate 17
–so QUICK: SAY something

Twin edifices
Tumbled down twelve years ago.
The Republic STANDS.

Image