Wednesday, 15 February 2012

Eleven not 7


My 'Trailing Spouses' art group is a source of great inspiration. I don't know why I can't come up with any ideas myself for the group. I feel indebted at this point, but grateful.

Andrea suggested that we compose an "Elfchen"for our next group meeting, which is a bit like a German version of a Haiku poem. It has just eleven words, and has a fixed structure like the following

1: 1 word, - a  colour or a virtue
2 :2 words -  an object, theme, an issue or a person
3:3 words -  describes 2 in further detail
4:4 words -  your subjective viewpoint
5:1 word -   summarise

I wrote some Elfchen(s) in English first but then translated them into German. This was quite an interesting experience as the German version went beyond translation and I realised that another (more direct?) side comes out in me when I write German!

Patty suggested we confine the "Elfchens" to the theme of "Future". The future for me is too uncertain  to think about at the moment, I really don't know where I will be living in less than a year. I decided, though, to  preserve something from today for future reference. The banal moments and surroundings that you forget when you've moved house or  country. So the following "Elfchens" describe my home office at various points of the day.

I really like Andrea's idea of making the Elfchens into a three-way folding book. It will reveal the poems in an unexpected way, like the future does.


Green
Spider plant
Squats my desk
The Flower and the Carbuncle
hoping for green fingers 
Surviving.

yellow
A flower
drawn in crayon
appeared on my window
today

Silver
The computer
Showing Donald Duck,
laughing out loud at
failure

Grey
Courthouse opposite
Law against it?
Prince Charles would say
"Carbuncle"

White
A plastic bag
Left on floor
For how many months?
Three?



Grün           
"Flinker Heinrich*"
Ein illegaler Siedler
Nicht grüner Daumen Dank
Überlebend

Gelb
Eine Blume
Fenstergekritzeltes Gemälde, lebensbejahend
Die erschien gestern. Doch!
Heute

Grau
Landgericht gegenüber 
bricht jedes Gesetz
Prince Charles würde sagen
“Karbunkel”

Silber
Der Computer
Warum nicht die?
Gucken wir Donald Duck?
Nee

Weiss
Die schöne Tüte
Auf dem Boden
Einfach hingeschmissen, wie Schlampig!
Bitte?








*Apparantly a word for Grünlilie (Spider Plant), it's in the dictionary, honest!














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