Colours out of Carcosa

Select a text that you have to read and use strategies of permutation to find new meaning, or to creatively read that text into the form of a poem. Originially published February 2023

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no axe has ever cut

moss coated cottages

all vacant now

the place is not good for the imagination

does not bring restful dreams at night

secrets of strange days will be one

hidden lore of old oceans

evil centuries

elder mysteries

shadows lurking, always there

too thickly, too big, too silent, too soft

fine grey dust or ash

sickly and stunted

lay rotting at the rim

stagnant vapours playing

strange tricks with the hues of sunlight

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I chose the introduction of H. P. Lovecraft's 'The Colour out of Space' to make this permutation poem. The Colour our of Space is one of my favourites of Lovecraft's short stories.

My technique of chance procedure opening the pages and shooting elastic bands at them. Whatever text lay within the elastic band would appear in this poem.