Timepieces

Here is a found poem of mine titled "Timepieces," a found poem consisting of quotations from Edward Gorey and Christina Rossetti. It is on page 53 of the 2020 edition (the Spring 2020 issue) of The Bluestone Review. To read the 2020 edition of The Bluestone Review in its entirety online, click here.

 

The Rooster's Rhyme: An Anonymous Nursery Rhyme

"Angus lost a shoe not far from the folly. Alethea vanished from a picnic. Albert left for Peru." So wrote Edward Gorey in The Helpless Doorknob: A Shuffled Story (1989), a pack of twenty cards featuring his finely detailed, enigmatic art and text. I based my selection and arrangement of the three sentences by Edward Gorey that I quoted above on the following anonymous nursery rhyme:


Cock-a-doodle-doo!
My dame has lost her shoe,
My master's lost his fiddlestick,
And knows not what to do.

Cock-a-doodle-doo!
What is my dame to do?
Till master finds his fiddlestick,
She'll dance without her shoe.

Cock-a-doodle-doo!
My dame has found her shoe,
My master's found his fiddlestick.
Sing doodle-doodle-doo!

Cock-a-doodle-doo!
My dame will dance with you,
While master fiddles his fiddlestick
For dame and doodle-doo.

The Helpless Doorknob: A Found Poem

THE HELPLESS DOORKNOB: A FOUND POEM

by Monty Gilmer

(From The Helpless Doorknob: A Shuffled Story,

a pack of twenty cards featuring the finely detailed,
enigmatic art and text of Edward Gorey.

Adolphus in this story is a large, black dog,

black as melancholy.)

Agatha finished

Knitting a scarf

For Augustus.

Amanda wrote

A note

To Augustus.

Angus lost

A shoe

Not far from

The folly.

Albert left

For Peru.

Arthur's outdoor garments turned up

In a guestroom closet.

Agatha taught Adolphus

To dance the one-step.

Andrew came across

A horrid secret in

Adela's diary.

Adela flung

Angela's baby

From an upstairs window.

Adela became disoriented

At Alaric's funeral.

Angus inherited

The grandfather clock from Aunt Ada.

Alfred returned

From Novaya Zemlya.

Angus concealed

A lemon behind a cushion.

Alethea vanished

From a picnic.

A mysterious urn

Appeared in the grounds.

Amanda found

Several unfolded napkins

On a back shelf.

Agatha pedalled

To the neighbouring village

For help.

Andrew received a postcard

From Amaryllis.

Ambrose took an overdose

Of sarsaparilla.

A disguised person came to one

Of the side doors.

Adela could not find her way

Out of the woods.