Friday, December 14, 2012

A Tolkien 55


We shouldn't be here,
if we'd known…
but it's often that way;
a habit of the old.

Their paths were laid
from ashes,
from shadows
both sweet and bitter.

Brave things, old tales, adventures,
ones that really mattered
they had forgotten.

Turning back, inside the story,
can we change 
the course of the future?

Written for G-man's Friday 55, this is a variation of Erasure poetry, which is a form of found poetry created by erasing words from an existing text in prose or verse and framing the result on the page as a poem. It can be allowed to stand in situ or arranged into lines and/or stanzas.  The poem I've assembled above is from the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, as a tip of my cap to him on the opening day of The Hobbit movie. If you're interested in Erasure Poetry I suggest you go to dVerse Poets Pub.
To read more 55 word tidbits click on FF55

24 comments:

  1. What a great tribute! Love the poem you've found.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The words not erased flowed perfectly together.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Gail. It was a bit tricky...I putzed for a long time.

      Delete
  3. I re-read the book before I see the movie. I liked hearing his distilled words.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Grandmother. I thought of re-reading the book, but didn't. As it turns out Jackson didn't follow the book quite so closely, so you may be a bit frustrated with the movie.

      Delete
  4. Great tribute indeed, hopefully the movie is at least as good as the other ones.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Pat...but I'm afraid, imho, it wasn't. :o(

      Delete
  5. The Hobbit was all the rage when I was in College.
    Just like Twilight is now.
    I put off reading it for years because I didn't want to be thought of as 'trendy'.
    But once I started reading it....BOOM!
    I quickly read through all of them within a month!
    I can't wait to see the movie.
    Loved your "Stinging" 55 Mary Bach
    Once again you've added that special touch of class to the Friday Funfest. Thanks for playing, and have a Kick Ass Week-End

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Heehee - thanks G-man. I read the Hobbit way back when too. And then I read it as a bedtime story (a chapter a night) to my son when he was 5 or so. He loved it and we did the trilogy next. So, when the movies came out years later I was a pretty cool mom for knowing all about Tolkien before the current pop culture. I love it when stuff works like that!

      Delete
  6. very cool....you turn tolkiens words well and especially on the weekend of the release...sadly i have heard mixed reviews....but will see it when i can....i spent some time among hobbits in my day....smiles.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Brian. I went to see the movie with my son last night and I'm sorry to report it was disappointing. :o(

      Delete
  7. Fiction is supposedly a way for us to practice for the future. hopefully see possible consequences before it's too late to prevent the cause. So maybe we can turn back the future.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, we need to work with that timey-wimey, wibbly-wobbly stuff as much as we can!

      Delete
  8. Whats has its gots in its pocketses?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Love what you've done here.

    I might have to try it some day.

    Is this from The Hobbit? Are the source words in close proximity?

    Cheers!
    JzB

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I probably should have said the words I used are from both "The Hobbit" and from Tolkien's quotes in correspondence, etc and one from "The Fellowship of the Ring". I think the Erasure form strictly speaking is to take a single page as source, which is why I called this a variation. Cheers JzB!

      Delete
  10. Replies
    1. Thank you Alice, it was more difficult than I thought it would be!

      Delete
  11. Very nice! I can't wait to see The Hobbit.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Erica, I was a bit disappointed. And I found the 3-D not worth the extra $...just gimmicky.

      Delete
  12. Love the idea ... and your execution of it.
    thanks for sharing
    martine

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Martine, and thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete