I am using a recording app on my phone to read notes into. I knew it wouldn’t have homosyntaxism, but I was curious, so I spoke. It responded with: ‘almost in taxes’.
Be sure to check out some of the other posters, both in my comments below and at the FPR.
The prompt:
Homosyntaxism is a method of translation that preserves only the syntactic order of the original words. To give a rudimentary example, if N=noun, V=verb and A=adjective, the outline NVA could yield solutions such as “The day turned cold,” “Violets are blue,” “An Oulipian! Be wary!”)
Option 1: Choose a sentence from your newspaper source text and write as many homosyntaxisms as possible based on that same variation.
Option 2: Complete a homosyntaxism of an entire paragraph or article found in your text.
I, in my restless sleeping, had an epiphany. Of course, this is just a copy change, but with prose. For those who have never done one, it’s like a giant mad lib. Take out the nouns, verbs, adjectives and some adverbs, noting which are where. Leave a structural framework. When I did this exercise with poems, I left words like when, but, and, anything that was not major in meaning but helped me see the structure.
With this, you can try that with a bunch of short sentences, or find a short passage you like, put in line breaks, then replace words and tinker. After much casting about, I elected Option 1. I was helped in my decision when I read Mildred’s. She chose a VERY short sentence. Thus I was inspired.
The poem:
I am trying
I am looking
I am calling
I am searching
I am hoping
I am missing
I am seeking
I am leaving
I am passing
I am dying
The source:
I went for the Classifieds in the end. My source sentence was: I am searching.
barbcrary
24/04/2014 at 12:59 pm
Inspirational, Margo! My saving grace is that my article contains words such as “kickass,” “bitch” and “Virgin.” Just sayin’
margo roby
24/04/2014 at 1:03 pm
I am so jealous! You can do a conversation poem.
lylannemusselman
24/04/2014 at 1:02 pm
Nice. And simple. Sometimes those are the best ones. I like it a lot, Margo.
margo roby
24/04/2014 at 1:03 pm
Thanks, Lylanne (such a pretty name).
mildred achoch
24/04/2014 at 1:17 pm
Beautiful and moving!
margo roby
24/04/2014 at 2:44 pm
Could not have started it without you, Mildred!
Nicole
24/04/2014 at 1:47 pm
This is brilliant!! Such a creative and inspiring idea. It also lowered my stress level about this prompt.
margo roby
24/04/2014 at 2:42 pm
Good! And, thank you.
whimsygizmo
24/04/2014 at 3:22 pm
Skeletal mastery once again, Margo. Wonderful.
I’m here:
http://whimsygizmo.wordpress.com/2014/04/24/the-five-best-things-we-ate/
margo roby
24/04/2014 at 3:25 pm
I’m getting good at skeletal!
glittergirl59
24/04/2014 at 7:31 pm
This gives me license to do a short haiku-ish something or other. I was stumped all day. Brilliant!
margo roby
24/04/2014 at 7:39 pm
Absolutely! Go for it.
nwian
25/04/2014 at 7:29 pm
Phew. Last one for today. http://confessionsinstories.blogspot.com/2014/04/he-loved-her.html
margo roby
26/04/2014 at 10:06 am
Grin. i love that I get to read them now!