A new term, The paths glow— the breeze is a rush of exhilaration.
Leafy, muddy Cambridge is still quiet, but their words veer off the path.
I just started the novel Tiepolo Blue, by James Cahill, which I bought because of the title and the swimming pool on the cover. The writing on the first page was so lovely, its phrases so descriptive that it was almost poetry anyway. Is it cheating to use such a source for an erasure poem? A bigger challenge would be to employ, say, the business section of a newspaper, but I took the plunge into the Tiepolo pool anyway. I’m keeping "I" for the poem's title, which is the Roman number I, but you could also read it as the personal pronoun “I” and entertain a little mystery.
More poems and poetry talk from others at the Poetry Friday roundup for May 15th; it’s at Patricia J. Franz’s place.
Poem source: Tiepolo Blue, by James Cahill. Sceptre/Hodder & Stoughton/Hachette UK, 2022.
Yes! I love the mystery of “I” as “a new term.” Feels like renewal, a fresh start, where “paths glow.” And no, it’s not cheating –at least not to me. It’s leaning on fellow poets for making all things new.
Love how you pulled the poetic phrases from the prose to create something new. And I also enjoyed hearing how you chose the book based on the title and cover. So many different ways to find our way into a good read!
Reading Tiepolo I thought of the Italian Rococo artist Giovanni Batistta Tiepolo, and what a fun and moving poem you created from that page of traveling words. Perhaps there will be a II and III.
The artist Tiepolo definitely figures in the book. The protagonist is an art historian and Tiepolo expert. I like the idea of a II and III. Thank you for that!
Not cheating! It’s fun to get inside the thoughts of an author by taking what’s there and making something new. Well done! And, I love that you kept the “I.”
This is such a fabulous erasure poem! I love the words you’ve chosen to highlight and combine, especially, “the breeze is/ a rush of exhilaration” and “their words/ veer off the path.” I agree with the others that this is not cheating. It’s mining a rich vein and finding your own treasures to bring to a polish!
What a nice thing to hear this afternoon! Thank you, Molly. I’m enjoying the novel. I have a feeling that this very buttoned-up main character is going to be considerably (and literally) less so by the end! Ha.
Fantastic, Susan! I love your reasons for buying the novel, too… I fell into Helen MacDonald’s “H is for Hawk” that way years ago, too (the title and the glorious woodcut image on the cover).
I like the way your erasure turns Cambridge into a “they”–applying a modern pronoun/ciation to a place with a voice, quiet and veering, as are so many of our long-lived institutions.
Chicken Spaghetti 
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