Elemental

"Mutate. Sporulate. Bud. Regenerate."
***

Too many great lines to pull one out. Inventive and intriguing. *

Brilliant, Jane. I just love how this sounds in my head and how you land it on those two perfect words. I'm science geeky, too, though at a much lower level than you, unschooled as I am, but yeah...love this.

thanks, lovely readers. I actually did research to write this, Kathy. I know Flannery O'Connor says writers shouldn't, but then she died so young, maybe she would have changed that statement if she'd lived and written longer.

Much as I love Flannery O'Connor, I don't agree with everything she said about writing. I love research. I love using strange bits and words in my own writing. You made poetry out of yours here, Jane.

I would buy a book titled "Beautiful Opportunist". *

I would buy a book titled, "Haboob.Typhoon.Derecho." Yep! Good one, Jane.

Thanks Mathew & Joan. I will write them just for you :)

Not entirely sure what I just read but I love it. Especially this bit:

"All matter cast out outcast came back like a gangster on crack."

*

...but not one titled "Kebra Negast Qu'ran Torah Bhagavad Gita Phtagoras Dhammapada Bible Upanishads Tao Te Ching Thelema" if I had to ask for it in person at Barnes & Noble.

Thanks, Amanda--yes, it's an odd thing!

It's all bad chemicals for us.

It is much like poetry and yet it keeps the option in reserve to be fiction/prose. It is so much finer than a science poem I read in The New Yorker. I will not entertain you by telling you whose, but I will tell you that I just about blew a whistle. The poet had included one science word as if acting big. This piece dazzles and doesn't lose its purpose to its style. (I was in that same issue of Blue Fifth Review, and it is a pleasure to revisit the writing there and the images.) *

Favorite moment:

"Some OneWith got memory storage story/history. Mumble mutter hum buzz. Kebra Negast Qu'ran Torah Bhagavad Gita Phtagoras Dhammapada Bible Upanishads Tao Te Ching Thelema."

Great meeting of sound and ideas. A wonderful barrage. *

Last two words are perfect. *

I like how this makes the reader think. *

Thanks, Ann. That was a great issue of Blue Fifth Review, yes :) I admire writers who are comfortable with science (I'm getting there, but it's a lot of work for my brain!) But I don't admire the "acting big" use of science. I do worry a lot about the planet, so I figured I better start understanding more and better! And thanks Sam--yes a barrage kind of describes the whole thing! And Beate and Charlotte thanks for your comments!

I'd love to hear this read (by you).

Agree with Steve. Yes, you have to put an audio up somewhere.

Thanks Steven and JLD--it's a real tongue twister! I actually did a reading of it on video last spring for a National Poetry Month thing in San Francisco, but kept flubbing it. But I'll practice some more . . . and keep you posted :)

*, Jane. This is an excellent recipe and I read along step-by-step as you made your primordial soup. Great writing.

Very cool.*

Jane, I remember reading this in Blue Fifth Review when you published it then and it is as provocative and wonderful reading it again now. Such inventive writing! *

I love the push and pull of language and lucidity in this poem! It begs to be read, swirled over the tongue and felt in the cavern of cheeks and released to air. It's as evocative and enchanting as MacBeth's witches :"Double, double toil and trouble
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble."*

Thanks so much David--I always like sharing a recipe :) Your comment is quite enchanting as well, Emily--thanks! Gary and Robert--thanks for your reads!

Skillful word parings. This is high-level writing, and I loved it *

Thanks, Foster!

Multifariously wise.*

Thanks, James!