Sunday Poetry XXV -- ART CHIROGRAPHY II

http://littleartmonkeys.com/Projects/Drawings/

Art chirography is all over the place (though not so easy to find via Google-image search; it's the kind of thing you stumble upon when you're not really looking for it), and a lot more common than I thought back when I posted about it some time ago (which post, by the way, is the most popular post on The Wall by a thousand percent, literally ).  A little different from concrete poetry, the chirographic side, perhaps less poetic, and in a way, more onomatopoeic, is more the word done-up to look like what the word is, like the word "car" shaped like a car (often called "word art," and more than what MS Word means by it).  A really pretty stunning example I saw recently was at my son's grade school, where there is a series of prints, artfully framed, on the walls of one hallway depicting each of the seven continents, each continent's name spelled out and shaped (like that "car" car) like the continent itself.  Of course, I think we've all done this in grade school, and even high school, art classes, but it's also a not-so-uncommon trope of graphic artists and advertisers.  While this is perhaps a stretch--more a blend of the concrete poetry and chirography--the website wordle.net is a blast to play around with, and I highly recommend it (here's what I did just a few minutes ago), if less for the artistic/literary benefit then more for just the simple addictive fun of it.

Then there's the stuff that some people call picture puzzles, my favorite of which is simply:

HOrobOD 

--or the "rebus."

***

http://callepompon.blogspot.com/2009/07/word.html
as well as some brilliant samples posted by my sister,
who's much more skilled than I am at finding stuff
like this

http://stacyloo.blogspot.com/2011/04/word-art.html

Finally, two more sources of a sort of art chirography or (ew) graphically representational words are the classic Magnetic Poetry kits and my personal preference among thesauri, of all things: Visual Thesaurus.

ANNOUNCING: Our Next Title -- KIM, by Rudyard Kipling

If Modern Library were to base their distinctive List solely upon reader preferences, their list wouldn't be worth much.  Thankfully, the "Reader's List" is ancillary to the "Board's List," upon which we find, at place number 78, our next book, Kim.  Perhaps more than just about anything else, this is what drew me to this particular work of Rudyard Kipling's, rather than my once top-choice pick, Just So Stories.

More than that, I really don't have anything to say more than what I've otherwise read at Wikipedia; I don't know anyone who's read the book, and I really don't know anything about it apart from, well, Kipling wrote it, likely it had something to do with his 1907 Nobel for literature, and it's set in British-ruled India (which for some reason keeps connecting itself in my mind to the film, The Painted Veil, based upon Maugham's novel).

Don't have a hard copy of the book (like me)?  HTML format here; or select another of Gutenberg's offerings here.

WE START MONDAY, APRIL 18

Check out the "Books Completed" list over on the sidebar.  Of six books, 4 are already Brits'; this makes 5 (not that that's a bad thing; they've produced a heckuva lot of fantastic books).  We're reading another American novelist next--and a modern one.

Google CAPTCHA, List #3

ackso | aeser | alead | allymsmu | alyze | andowswe | aspharh | auzzlent | becie | besigi | buledu | bulgaul | burst | cabro | carlar | catiz | cenor | cesedanf | chells | chitsma | clocker | coarcisp | codsbon | comazin | conste | corbuse | cratemer | dularli | extort | flunwal | gablewor | goont | hentsac | herying | hopul | huloork | hysion | imings | immen | indiffur | iners | kourathi | litar | litida | malursi | marmili | matsked | minermar | mistlyc | monspo | noodic | nuroa | ocksh | ophesse | ouricut | paddlife | pareld | peare | pirratin | polyt | ponitrot | porer | porshpl | previ | pridi | procapt | quest | redlyr | remen | rersp | saludged | scetr | serfl |sesore | sessedu | sessmot | skstede | smelabl‏ | sonno | speridi | sterm | stswei | sulion | sumbleth | sunticst | suppec | surtis | symican | tactiver | twindoc | unall | undeh | ursedi | valsicks | vdmissio | vinowerb | vitymett | wholoo | woramp | xsant |

my favorites: smelabl, wholoo, and gablewor

Rudyard Kipling -- Our Next Author: PLEASE CAST YOUR VOTE

Rudyard Kipling

While I can't say I've read tons of Kipling, I've made it through a fair amount of his verses and many of his stories.  For better or worse (likely the latter), I have not read The Jungle Book, and the Disney version, like the original or not (likely the latter), is on my short list of all time favorite movies.  That said, of his poetry/verse stuff I've read, this is my favorite:

I have eaten your bread and salt.
I have drunk your water and wine.
In deaths ye died I have watched beside,
And the lives ye led were mine.

Was there aught that I did not share
In vigil or toil or ease, –

One joy or woe that I did not know,
Dear hearts across the seas?

I have written the tale of our life
For a sheltered people's mirth,
In jesting guise – but ye are wise,
And ye know what the jest is worth.

It is the prelude poem, brief and surprisingly elegant, to his "Departmental Ditties."


SO HERE IT IS (because of the hope for short/fun):  I suggest that Kipling be our next author, and hope, therefore, to narrow our search down to one from the following three (please read a little about each and indicate your preference below in comment):

• Kim
• Just So Stories (with original illustrations here)
• The Jungle Book (all three novels here in various forms, thanks to the treasure of Gutenberg.org)

* added later, because, well, who doesn't need friends:

Wednesday's for Kids XXI -- FIELD TRIPS

Sorry I didn't post this yesterday.  We were on a field trip.

Forget the books for a day.  Take your kids (or yourself) on a field trip.

Yesterday, my family went up to Temple Square in Salt Lake City and spent the better part of the entire day in and out of museums, historical sites, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' spectacular gardens.  My kids seemed most "in to" (yes, this is true) the Church's historical museum, and went from display to display eager to hear my wife or me read them the curated descriptions.  My favorite was the tour we got the Conference Center (the largest "single-point" auditorium in the world, with apparently gravity-defying feats of structural engineering), the artworks (paintings, sculptures--all originals) throughout the lobbies and waiting areas, and the rooftop gardens and waterfall (and this aside from the organ and auditorium acoustics, which, unfortunately, were not on demonstration).

As a family, we take field trips quite frequently (and generally less religiously oriented than yesterday, despite, and contrary to, what many may otherwise think as we are indeed Mormons in Utah).  They're great for building family (optimistically) ties and (jadedly) tolerance.  We listen to music and audio books in the car.  We pack picnics.  We walk and giggle and explore.

Not sure where to begin?  Get on your city and state websites and hunt around a bit.  Though I'd be lying if I claimed that all places were created [on the potential-for-field-trip-scale] equal, every place everywhere (and I mean every place everywhere) has stuff to see, visit, and do.  There's no place without a history, or, well, near someplace that is.

WHAT RHYMES WITH ORANGE?

Nothing (and this doesn't count), right?  Oxford says no, anyway.  And they're the authorities, right?

Maybe not.

Try this out (say it out loud if you need to): what sound does the letter R make?  Based on everything you know about consonants and vowels, wouldn't you call "rrrr" a vowel?  After all, it acts just like a vowel.  Doubt me?  Compare the relative positioning your mouth assumes for R against A, E, I, O, or U.  Bearing this in mind, as well as the subtle dialectical shifting of the "schwa" (especially that of my 3-year-old, which, in this case, more closely resembles the "soft" I; and what, really, defines the "perfect" (referring again to the Oxford from above) pronunciation of any vowel, vowels being, after all, the first phonemes to change in any living language?), I have now found a word, in English, that rhymes with ORANGE, at least if we presume that in order to rhyme with orange, the final consonant, as well as the previous two vowel sounds, must echo precisely that of the next word, then ...

(drum roll) 

... the word SYRINGE rhymes with ORANGE.

THE WALL'S NEXT BOOK (we're winding up for our 6th already!)

Our last book, The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana (discussed here; reviewed here), by Umberto Eco, was a bit of a monster; I'm hoping we can decide on a slightly shorter, simpler text next (though not necessarily "easier," if you get my drift).  I've got some thoughts, but would love to hear your ideas first.

Please, sound off below.

Þ




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