Cleave of the Month

Cleave of the Month:

Whilst I am focused elsewhere (for the next 2 weeks or so) I will introduce ‘Cleave of the Month’.

Please vote for your favourite cleave poem (excluding the Editor’s),

published in September,

by posting a ‘comment’ in this format

(or any other format if you strongly disagree)

attaching it to this post:

• Poet’s name:
• Cleave poem title (or first line):
• Date published:
• What can be learnt from this cleave?

The Editor

Submissions: Dennis Kelly

Cleave ‘Translations’ from Pound’s Personae (1925)

______cleavages

__is it poetry—or just a game

____creating—beautiful cleavages

these elegant—crossword puzzles

___three-way—entertaining

___labyrinths—mazes?

_______de jour

__scattered—fragments

not knowing—day to day

_tomorrow’s—menu

______split—pea soup

____cleave—de jour

____________mac low

_________—for laurie elaine

_________i studied—aleatoric poetry

___botticellian splits—mac low’s diastic

______doubling back—seed to source

carefully capitalizing—the key letters

___to form the name—diagonally down

_____a pretty effect—but I got bored

____not enough tho—give me estrangement

___cleaving is more—narratological

_not just two texts—seed & source

but three new texts—folding into one

_________origami—surprise kit

____official poetry

__light-hearted—i woke up

___in the wold—nonchalantly

_the magnolias—blooming

____stifled me—faint of breath

smothered me—the stench

______rotting—official poetry

___________anthology

_____________go—cleave-born book

________tell them—diamonds flake

______down there—where sapphires

____________burn—liquid emeralds fume

rubies red as blood—flow like lava

___________deep—down inside me

Submission: Diana Manister

A Bawdy Poet Laureate Enjoying Naughty Nights

our dreams – disguises
_____relieve – our
_______days – null
_____nought – fraughts

Submission: selection of cleave poems from greatwriting.co.uk

A selection of cleave poems from greatwriting.co.uk.

De-stressed-Distressed by John Bevan (aka Katanga)

__I’m certain that-I’m overtaxed
__stone-deaf, I’ll-need my ears waxed
________not hear-sometime soon
annoying noises-What a buffoon!

Feeling dies by Rachel Prudden (aka Rioka)

______this beautiful-feeling dies in me
________ally of mine-you can’t hurt me
_______reaching out-for your desire
__and freezing time-does not inspire
an aching heart but-tears in my eyes
_____for you I smile-though I should cry

The Circus by Brett Evans (aka Brett)

____The circus rolls-with joy and glee
__________into town-a novelty
___an ageing clown-shows its face
__proving youthful-without disgrace
__to such old jokes-we all connect
though his respect-through our neglect
_no longer chimes-of ancient rhymes.

Two visions: Ezekiel and Aphrodite by Brian Fone (aka patterjack)

_________Ezekiel saw a vision,-a gleaming godly vision,
____saw wheels within wheels-making the mind spin
_____spreading across the sky-as it slowly revealed itself
dazzling the enlightened man-with all its terrible beauty
__________sweeping him away-and took watcher, mind and body,
__from the reality around him-with its naked,  shining splendour.