Drool away, or: Languid shadow

Posted on by ben Alexander

My first attempt at ‘Magnetic Poetry’

I just recently discovered the ‘Magnetic Poetry’ website via Kerfe and Jane, and I thought I would give it a go. I opted for the ‘original kit’… Honestly, I am not sure how I feel about the result, but this exercise, by its nature, is very limiting. Next time, I may go for a different kit – the words provided me this time didn’t much spark my imagination.

The one rule I set for myself was to make use of every single word I was given.

if these lazy wax girls of summer fluff
            drool away in raw boy honey language
            by languid shadow at a TV life to want so
she is his music not but one pound puppy to you

59 thoughts on “Drool away, or: Languid shadow”

  4. Hmm. To my mind, that isn’t a poem, it’s just a random collection of the words offered. I found it a useless sort of a tool to begin with too until I began to only pick out the words that inspired and discarded the ones that didn’t. I mean, TV? Let the words that leap out at you form the framework for your own poem in your (grammatical) language. Yes, the word is very limited which is why I only ever use a handful of those offered. Like key words. All the rest is the thought process that flows from it. Just my two penn’orth.

    1. No – that’s totally fair – I think you’re right… if I do it again, I may do as you suggest – just take the words that jump out at me… maybe that’s why I am not so crazy about this result. Thanks, Jane!

    1. I don’t really feel like I pulled it off. I think I should try to be more flexible, as Kerfe and Jane suggested in their comments. They’ve been doing magnetic poetry for a while, and I am just a newbie!

  6. An interesting result. I would not only never try to use every word on a single page, I keep going from page to page–eventually you get back to the original one. Also, I switch sets if one doesn’t feel right. Jane adds words of her own as well. Go back and scroll through the more words before you try to even write anything next time. See how it works. When you pull words out and hit “more words”, it gives you more words, but still leaves the words you pulled out, and you eventually return to that page. I think you set too many limits for yourself. When you write a poem in general, do you make yourself use every word that occurs to you? (K)

      1. Thanks to you also David. You made me think about rules, both the ones we make for ourselves, and the ones imposed on us. And this also makes me think about your recent post about following the rules of your religion. One of the first things I learned in design school was that restrictions make you focus. When something is too open-ended most of the time it doesn’t produce a good design. But how does that apply to other parts of our life? something to ponder.

        1. Kerfe, you know, relatedly, I often make word games of d’Verse poetry prompts, which have rules that I assign myself… and that’s what I was trying to do with the magnetic poem that I wrote… but in this case, I think the rule was so restrictive as to render the poem less than satisfactory to me, which is why I agree with you & Jane. So… I guess it’s partially a question of the degree of limitation that our rules impose upon us, right?

  8. Wow David, quite interesting…. It does seem difficult. I myself haven’t heard of such poetry before, thanks for sharing. I certainly couldn’t pull it off the way you did. Although the words were difficult I still think you did a great job. Must you use every word? Very creative… 😊

    1. Thank you 🙂

      I think I’ll try at least one more time – without the limitation of forcing myself to use all of the words… I’ll allow the creative process to be more organic in my second attempt!

      ❤
      David

  14. I feel there is an essence of truth within your arrangement of these words. It’s ridiculously cute …

    I like the idea of deed not creed, the Dalai Lama says “his religion is kindness” … they are saying the same thing with different words and our world would be a better place if we live by them!

    1. ridiculously cute

      I’ll take that compliment, Kate 😁

      And, yes, I agree with what you wrote about the world being a better place if we were to live according to such guidance.

      Yours,
      David

  16. I had a set on my filing cabinet at work – I’d put together a poem and by the end of the day it had been altered – sometimes for the better but usually it turned bawdy. I just couldn’t trust my coworkers to leave it alone!

    1. Andrew,

      Well, I realized after the fact that I did it wrong – Kerfe explained it to me afterwards: there are actually more words available (if you push a button to see them), and he and Jane don’t use all of the words they are provided… so today I will give it another go, allowing myself some reasonable flexibility.

      -David

  19. “if these lazy wax girls of summer fluff drool away in raw boy honey language”
    These lines are visually striking, humorous, and enjoyable to read. I found myself rereading them multiple times!

  21. First time I tried I too wanted to use all the words, and was not successful at all. For now I would just pick some and try to get something out of it I think 🙂

  22. I see what you’re saying that if you try to force using all words, then it does look…funky. Made me LOL though. 🙂 Thanks, Ben. Will try it one of these days.

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