LJ Idol LPF Week 3

[encrefloue]

Topic: "Tsundoku"

Note: The first stanza is to be read horizontally, left to right. The second stanza is to be read vertically, right to left. If you're not keen on this, I've posted the poem as plain text in the first comment on this post.

t	s	u	n	d	o	k	u
It	sp	un	an	d t	oo	k o	ut
the	shr	oud,	sen	din	g ro	ck d	ust
into	fres	h wou	nds a	nd a h	omes	ick m	outh.
After	it sur	round	ed any	dolef	ul, onl	ookin	g curs,
it sate	d itsel	f with u	nlatch	ing nod	es from	unkemp	t tufts
of palm t	rees and	jumbled	nori, dis	carding	them alo	ng Tohok	u's coast.

t	s	U	N	D	O	k	U
at	o s	nu	in	id	ol	ak	nu
too	ets	sua	e en	Edo	ong	is, k	su a
ed to	a squ	l tum	ds ne	endu	pour	oi, ki	l rup
tacit	all as	ults, t	ver kn	re as d	ed ont	cking	tures
mouths:	animus	umesce	own by a	ire a dr	o Obasa	askew a	surged,
tsunami.	asunder,	nt furor—	kitsune.	eam's end?	n's books.	katsura.	hurling

Comments

[encrefloue]

Thank you! I officially call it a Tsundoku, haha. I wanted to create a poem structure that embodied the joining of the characters "pile up" and "read" (per Wikipedia). I'm sure there are poems with similar structures, but I would be surprised if there was another that followed exactly the elements that this one has, mostly for three reasons:
1) The switch from English reading direction to Japanese reading direction.
2) The requirement to retain the key letters is actually very restricting in the vertical format.
3) The critical execution error that I made. One of the core rules that I imposed on myself for designing the structure was that the stanzas were to be perfect squares, as this seems much more in line with the Japanese aesthetics of precision, uniformity, and symmetry. In my rush to beat the deadline, I broke this core rule in making 8x7 rectangles instead of 8x8 squares. I just had it in my head that I was working within the parameters of 7x7, then the gasp of horror upon realizing my design flaw after finishing the poem with minutes to spare. If there is a pre-existing poem form, it surely would require the symmetry. Maybe at some point I'll rework it to redeem it, haha.

[encrefloue]

But I guess you could say there was some inspiration pulled from the fixed-form Villanelle, a French poem form with very rigid rules. Those rules are quite different than the ones I made here, but perhaps a past experience with trying my hand at a Villanelle nurtured an appreciation for how constraints can lead to creative solutions.